The senior level all-star team of Turlock American Little League already made history by becoming the first NorCal state champion in the organization’s 69-year history by winning six of seven games in as many days last week. Despite traveling to Gilroy for each of those games and currently having to travel to Oakland for at least four days this week to compete in the United States Regional Tournament, the boys are hungry for an even further trip.
After defeating the Oregon All-Stars 11-0 in five innings in the opening round of regionals Wednesday, Braydon Keyler and Gavin Gomez combined for a no-hitter against Montana on Thursday to help lead the Turlock team to a 5-0 win to earn a Friday bye and a date with Arizona on Saturday. If they were to defeat the team from the Grand Canyon State and string together wins on Sunday and Monday, they would find themselves in Tuesday’s championship game with a trip to Easley, South Carolina for the 2024 Senior Little League World Series on the line.
“These guys just keep finding way to win. It’s really something special,” said manager Courtney Keyler. “This team has played tremendous and they're playing loose. They're having fun, but they also know the stakes. They know what the prize is. And the prize is getting on that plane on Thursday morning, flying to South Carolina and playing in the World Series.”
The Senior Little League World Series kicks off on July 27. And while the team has lost just one of their 12 games between early July’s Section 6 tournament, last week’s NorCal bracket, and through two games of this week's West Regional, they know that the games will only become harder and harder.
“Obviously, the competition here at the regional tournament is going to be much more stout as we get deeper into the tournament,” Keyler said. “With that being said, we're not giving anybody anything. We're going to go all out and play our style of baseball, Turlock baseball.”
The team is made up of 16 players with varying levels of experience. One player who may immediately stand out to local baseball enthusiasts is 5-foot-11, 175-pound pitcher Kaden Prine, who was named Southern Athletic League Pitcher of the Year as a junior earlier this year with the Denair High Coyotes. There is also Winston York and Blake Starn on the roster, who each played significant roles for the Turlock Christian High Eagles as they made a deep run into this year’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division 7 playoffs. York has forced caution of opposing pitching, drawing four walks in as many plate appearances.
In the 11-0 win over Oregon, six different players drove in runs — Gomez, Braiden Fuentes, Braydon Keyler, Kohen Ficher and Noah Suarez. In the 5-0 win against Montana, only one run was considered batted in, an RBI single by Suarez. The rest of the scores came on a steal of home by Owen McCord, a fielder’s choice from Fuentes, a balk and a passed ball.
“That’s what Turlock baseball is,” Keyler said. “We try to teach them to stick to their fundamentals, but also to use their skills to maximize the effort when running grounders out, hustling. All those things are so important for success. But most importantly, they are respectful of the other team. I don't go for anything but hustle. I expect them to use their athletic potential.”
Keyler has coached through the Turlock American Little League ranks for more than a decade and has had the honor of coaching more than 35 games in All-Star tournaments. His assistants are Joseph Souza and John Arellano. Making up those rosters of past years have been many of this year’s players. He believes that the players have clicked together best this season, and it’s showing in the results.
Even more impressive is the fact that this year’s roster was not finalized until the week leading up to Section 6 competition earlier this month since many players were a part of high school playoff teams or organizations on the travel ball circuit, which is against Little League rules. But once those players committed to Little League, they’ve been a near-unstoppable force since.
“And that’s so special,” Keyler said. “Many of these kids, including mine, they play travel ball. There are so many kids traveling to camps to get recruited. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But choosing to represent your city in the summer — and there’s no way around it, you have to live in the designated region to play on the team — that means something. You’re not paying to play. Each game we play is a privilege, and we’re going to do our best to earn the privilege of hopping on that plane to South Carolina on Thursday.
