Aptos All-Stars pitchers Kiran Yager and Miles Lee combined their forces to put on a performance of a lifetime in a 9-0 win against Los Altos in the Little League Section 5 championship in Campbell on Wednesday evening.
“It’s awesome, still waiting for it all to fully materialize and kick in,” Aptos head coach Tim Reilly said. “The kids deserve it. I’m just super proud of them and stoked for them. And we’re not done yet.”
District 39 champion Aptos is hoping to keep the momentum going as they face Section 6 and D-73 champion Los Banos in the NorCal tournament-opener at Lucchesi Park in Petaluma on Saturday at 1pm. The winner will face D-54 champion Maidu on Sunday at 1pm.
Yager got the green light to start on the mound Wednesday, giving up just one hit and tallying five strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings. Lee closed it out with five strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings tossed en route to Aptos’ first championship since winning it all in 2016, and fourth overall in the team’s history.
“Pitching was great, it’s been great all year for these guys,” Reilly said. “It’s nothing surprising, but it’s always surprising when you do that in the championship. But right now, these guys are solid.”
Capitola-Soquel All-Stars was the last group to win a Section 5 championship following a 4-2 win against Sunnyvale in 2023. The last time Aptos was in the title game was in 2022, but it lost to Los Gatos.
This year, Aptos had to beat Los Gatos twice and forced a winner-take-all scenario following a 4-1 win against Los Altos on Tuesday.
“It’s always tough coming through the losers bracket,” Reilly said. “Fortunately we didn’t have to crawl our way out of too deep a hole. But that Los Altos team was good. They were well coached. Having to beat them twice and beat Los Gatos twice, frankly was a lot. But, the kids pulled it off.”
In 2024, this same Aptos group hosted the Section 5’s 11s tournament, and it was in this exact position after falling into the losers bracket. They beat Lincoln Glen to force a second game for the championship, but Aptos was blanked 6-0 in the finale.
“I think having that experience to pull from for this one, it’s huge,” Reilly said.
On Wednesday, Aptos put on a hitting clinic from the start. Hunter LaTorre batted 3-for-3 with one RBI and scored a pair of runs, while teammates Patrick Collins, Wyatt Graaskamp and Ryan Santillan each had one hit and scored one run. Nolan McKee added a pair of RBIs and Tysen Espinoza recorded a sacrifice fly for one run.
“Getting that kind of production from your eight hitter [LaTorre] is awesome,” Reilly said. “These guys can all swing it, top to bottom.”
The Pieracci brothers, Cody and Beau—who had two hits and a pair of stolen bases on Wednesday—have also been solid at the top of the lineup throughout Aptos’ magical postseason run.
“It’s just great having them,” Reilly said.
Reilly said his players had some familiarity with the opposing pitcher after they faced him in Tuesday’s game, which he added was already intense because of what was at stake.
“If you win it, you’re going to be carrying that momentum to the next game,” Reilly said. “If you lose it, maybe a little of the reverse.”
Aptos began its postseason journey by winning the D-39 championship against Capitola-Soquel on June 29.
Reilly said their success on the field all starts with chemistry and the fact they’ve been playing together for quite some time. Outside of Little League, most of the players compete on the same travel ball team, go to the same schools and hang out with each other.
Reilly said he hasn’t had the chance to fully reflect and talk to the players, yet the one thing he has emphasized is to enjoy the moment.
“This is once in a lifetime,” Reilly said. “There’s very few teams that get to experience even this right now. Being able to advance beyond this round into the next round and beyond would be insane, but it’s one game at a time. I told the kids, just soak it all in and just enjoy the experience. You’ll remember it forever.”
