Northwood Saints capture Little League District 55 Tournament of Champions title

The Northwood Saints celebrate after winning the title Friday. (Photo courtesy Northwood Saints, For OC Sports Zone)

The Northwood Saints won the District 55 Tournament of Champions beating the Aliso Viejo Indians 4-2 at Hicks Canyon Park in Irvine on Friday night.

The tournament field was comprised of seven teams from California Little League District 55, which includes Little Leagues from Aliso Viejo, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest and Irvine Ranch.  

After earning a first round bye the Saints moved into the championship game by defeating the Irvine Ranch Golden Eagles 13-0 in four innings on Wednesday night.

The Saints bats were hot as they collected 15 hits in the game. Aaron Wimbley led the Saints with two hits and four RBI and received strong pitching performances from David Lee who went 2 2/3 innings, striking out six.

Yoshi Tsuge finished the game pitching 1 1/3 innings and striking out four batters.

In Friday’s championship final the Saints pounded out 11 hits. David Lee started off the scoring in the first inning when he scored from third on a passed ball after hitting a triple.

After the Indians scored in the bottom half of the first the score remained tied until the fourth inning. After a quick first out in the top half of the fourth, Lex Ni singled and Adam Avila broke the tie with a triple that drove in Ni.

The Saints added two more runs in the top half of the sixth inning when Yoshi Tsuge lead off with a single to left field then moved to second base after Stephen Dee walked.

Tsuge came around to score on a line single to left by second baseman Aaron Small advancing Dee to third who scored on a passed ball making the score 4-1.

The Saints were once again led by their pitching ace David Lee who took the 4-1 lead into the sixth and retired the Indians leadoff hitter with a strikeout, before being pulled after reaching his pitch limit.

Lee gave way to Yoshi Tsuge who got the first Indian batter he faced to ground out to first baseman Adam Avila for the second out of the inning. The next Indian hitter to come to the plate singled, and the proceeding batter hit a double to left center field making the score 4-2 and bringing the tying run to the plate.

After hitting the Indian’s No. 3 hittert, Tsuge induced a ground ball to shortstop David Lee who made a nice throw from deep in the hole to end the game and give the Saints Tournament of Champions championship trophy.

The Saints offense was led by David Lee who was 2 for 3 with a double, triple and a run scored. Adam Avila was 2 for 3 with a triple and an RBI, Jack Brucker added two hits, Yoshi Tsuge and Lex Ni each had a hit and run scored.

On the mound David Lee went 5 1/3 innings allowing four hits, one earned run, walking four and striking out nine. Yoshi Tsuge earned the save for the Saints.

The win improved the Saints overall record to 21-5 and marked their fourth championship title. The Saints won the Northwood Little League regular season Championship, Northwood Little League playoff championship, and Irvine Little League City Championship, before earning the District 55 Tournament of Champions crown.

The team was led by Manager Jeff Harper and assistant coaches Vince Dee and Ryan Brucker. The players on the team were: Adam Avila, Jack Brucker, Stephen Dee, Sam Guo, Jacob Harper, Joseph Harper, Michael Kerman,  David Lee, Lex Ni, Aaron Small, Yoshi Tsuge and Aaron Wimbley.

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