They considered themselves the underdogs, but they didn’t play like one.

The American League Red Sox put up 13 runs in the first three innings on their way to a 17-6 win in six innings over the National League Braves on Monday at Pedretti Park in the junior league’s City Championship of the Turlock Little League. The Red Sox had 14 hits, a number that demonstrated a team effort.

“We’ve been doing that pretty much all year, coming out and scoring a lot of runs,” Red Sox manager Randy Fereria said. “It was just a matter of how well we played defense.”

And the defense was just fine, especially with Austin Taylor — the game ball recipient and the player at the bottom of a postgame dog pile — pitching. He and the rest of the Red Sox kept calm and relaxed even when the Braves managed five of their six runs in the final three innings.

“When we do that,” Fereria said, “we’re a tough team to beat.”

The Red Sox came into the championship game with some motivation, seeing that the two previous meetings with the Braves resulted in a loss and a tie. However, the Red Sox took control early, with three runs in the first, five in the second and five more in the sixth to grab a 13-1 lead.

Taylor, the pitcher, also had a nice day at the plate. He went 3-for-5 with three runs scored to help support a Craig Ferguson performance that resulted in hits in all four of his at-bats to finish with four scoring runs. Trent Caldera got on base after three of his four plate appearances, three of them producing runs.

Anthony Fereria, Logan Lundquist and Brenden Sanders for the Red Sox all scored two runs each.

Our game plan “was to jump out on top of them, play good defense and hit the ball,” Taylor said. “We were hitting the ball pretty good.”

“I knew we’d come out swinging and we came through,” added catcher Chandler Callaway, who came through with one run scored, a double and two RBIs.

For the Braves, they combined for four hits and six runs, with hits from Ryan Sather, Brandon Ureno, Matthew Wessels and John Bettencourt. Wessels led with two hits, a triple and one run scored.

In the end, Red Sox manager Randy Fereria said it was a team effort.

“A lot of kids contributed tonight,” he said. “I can name every one of them. In all, it was a team effort. Coaching staff, the players — we were all on the same page. They were focused.”

To contact Chhun Sun, e-mail csun@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2041.