Placentia Punishers capture must-win, earn berth in Bronco League World Series title game

Placentia Punishers 12-and-under Bronco baseball all-stars captured a 15-0 victory over Tijuana, Mexico Monday morning to earn a trip to the championship game of the Bronco League World Series in Loredo, Texas.

Coach Brandon Smith’s all-stars will face the Kaohsiung City, Taiwan All-Stars Monday night, Aug. 1 at 5:30 Pacific time for the championship.

Placentia bounced back from a 3-0 loss to the Tijuana squad Sunday night to stay alive and reach the finals. Tijuana snapped Placentia’s 11-game winning streak in post-season play with the win on Sunday.

In the must-win game Monday which started at 10 a.m. local time, Andrew Churney got the win allowing just three hits and striking out five over five innings helping Placentia take two of three games from Tijuana.

Grady Klovstad was 3 for 5 with two RBI and two runs scored, Churney had two hits and scored three runs, Tyler Fritz was 1 for 1 with two RBI and two runs scored, Cole Grothues was 3 for 3 with two runs scored and two RBI, Tristan Gerken had three RBI and a run scored, Jayden Stilabower was 2 for 3 with four RBI, Caden Smith, Aiden Marchetta and Ben Hansen scored a run and Logan Weiss had two hits and scored two runs.

“Today was a team win. We all came together and worked counts,” Marchetta said. “Andrew threw a great game.”

“I came in and did my job for the team today,” Stilabower said. “The triple felt good and got our team going.”

“I’m looking forward to facing Taiwan and seeing how we will play to the best of our abilities,” added the Punishers’ Jacob Wang. “I feel confident we will go out with a bang.”

The Taiwan squad comes in undefeated in three games and advanced to the finals with a 15-0 victory over Loredo, Texas on Sunday night.