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Blaze 8s place third at Pinto World Series
• Ceres travel team wins pair of games at West Zone event
Blaze and Hilo-Hawaii
Members of the Ceres Blaze and Hilo-Hawaii eight-and-under travel baseball teams pose for a group picture following Saturday’s quarterfinals matchup at the West Zone Pinto World Series. Ceres prevailed by a score of 7-6. - photo by Contributed to the Courier

The Ceres Blaze eight-and-under travel baseball team made a deep run at the 2024 Pony Baseball West Zone Pinto World Series this past week in Rodeo.

Ceres advanced to the semifinals of the eight-team event, which was staged July 11-14 at Lefty Gomez Park.

The Blaze finished in third place.

“I thought we did really well,” head coach Ralph Valencia said. “All the teams were good. It was top competition.”

Simi Valley edged Placentia 1-0 in the championship game.

“We knew the SoCal teams would be the toughest,” Valencia said.

Eventual-champion Simi Valley knocked Ceres out of the tournament with an 8-4 win on Saturday.

“We didn’t win,” Valencia said. “But I’m happy with our performance. The boys played hard. They never gave up. We were a couple hits away. That could have changed the game.”

The Blaze advanced to the semifinals after earning a hard-fought 7-6 victory against Hilo-Hawaii on Saturday.

Ceres tallied two runs in the final inning to complete the comeback.

Jax Moring singled, moved to second on Danny Jacobo’s sacrifice bunt, advanced to third on Abel Valencia’s hit and scored on Cody Zuckerman’s single.

Brady Anderson played the role of hero as his one-out, single scored Valencia to clinch the victory.

“We finished strong,” coach Valencia said. “The kids were excited to keep on playing.”

Ceres lost 5-2 to Placentia on Friday.

Placentia battled back from a two-run deficit.

“It was a very close game,” Ralph Valencia said. “We had one bad inning and it cost us.”

The Blaze turned in an impressive performance during the opening round of the tournament.

Ceres coasted to a 10-0 win over Morgan Hill on Thursday.

“We wanted to come out strong,” coach Valencia said. “We pitched our top kids. We were able to get a lot of strikeouts. Several kids had multiple hits. It wasn’t just one. It was a team effort.”

The Blaze will conclude their summer season this week at the NCS World Series in Reno.

“It will be a fun tournament,” Ralph Valencia said. “Obviously, we want to have some success and finish strong.”

“I’ve definitely seen some growth this year,” he added. “They’re more confident.”