The Ceres Blaze 12-and-under travel baseball team joined elite company this past weekend.

The Blaze claimed the NorCal Bronco Northeast Super Regional championship at Costa Fields.

Ceres secured a berth to the West Zone World Series.

“The Blaze program has been around for 14 years,” head coach Jorge Guerrero said. “This is just the fifth or sixth team that’s won a Super Regional. It’s a big accomplishment. It’s not easy to do.”

“I’ve been close three different times with other teams and lost in the championship or semifinals,” he added. “This time, the boys performed. They were on a roll.”

Ceres won all four of its games at Super Regionals.

The Blaze outscored their opponents, 39-7.

“The goal was to win,” Guerrero said. “That was the expectation. Everybody played really well.”

Ceres shut out the depleted Tara Hills Outliers 11-0 in the title game on Sunday.

The Blaze edged the Outliers 7-6 in the second round of the tournament.

“It’s not the same team we faced on Friday,” Guerrero said. “They had to play three games to get to the championship. That takes a lot of energy. They ran out of gas. On the other hand, we were rested. We had our best pitchers on the mound.”

Ceres starting pitcher Antonio Pena had eight strikeouts in 42/3 innings.

Julian Aguilar totaled three strikeouts in 11/3 innings of relief.

“They’ve been very consistent every time they’ve taken the mound,” Guerrero said. 

The Blaze totaled 13 hits. 

Pena homered, collected one RBI and scored once.

Victor Nuno had three RBIs and three runs.

Preston Sanchez drove in four runs.

Jesus Guzman chipped in with three hits and one RBI.