The Ceres Blaze 12-and-under travel baseball team finished second overall at the Pony Baseball West Zone Bronco Super Regionals this past week in Seaside.

Ceres fell one win short of advancing to the West Zone Championship.

“It was an awesome experience,” head coach David Rubio said. “I’m disappointed with the outcome. But I’m proud of the boys. They competed.”

The Blaze amassed a 3-1 record at Super Regionals.

Marina punched its ticket to the West Zone Championship after topping Ceres 6-1 in the finals on Sunday.

Marina will represent Northern California.

“They had a good team,” Rubio said. “They were deeper than us. They could hit. We just couldn’t get timely hits. Their pitching was a whole different level.”

The Blaze stranded four runners on base during the first two innings.

“We can definitely compete with a team like that,” Rubio said. “But it makes it tough when you’re not scoring. Timely hitting in baseball is important. We didn’t get any against Marina.”

Ceres and Marina battled in front of a large crowd.

“The stands were full,” Rubio said. “Local teams stayed around to watch. Our energy was great. We were competing. We just left too many runners on base.”

Ceres dominated its first three opponents as it held a 47-5 scoring advantage.

The Blaze pounded Toro Park Blue of Salinas 11-1 in the semifinals on Sunday.

Ceres handled Seaside 21-2 in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

The Blaze won Thursday’s first-round matchup versus Pasa Robles by a score of 15-2.

“We were hitting,” Rubio said. “We were rolling.”

Blaze players took home second-place medals from Super Regionals.

Ceres plans to compete in a TPR Baseball event in the near future. Games will most likely be played in Manteca and Ripon.

“We’ll evaluate and see what works best,” Rubio said. “I want to give them one last tournament—something more vocal.”

Rubio will coach the majority of his players on a 13-and-under team this fall.