The California Showdown elimination game took place on August 6 to determine whether our Southern California team or Northern California team would compete against Hawaii in the West Regional Championship.
SoCal defeated NorCal with an impressive score of 11-0, forcing NorCal’s elimination. In a six inning game, 14 of SoCal’s outs came from strikeouts by pitcher Gavin Janicke. Janicke came in the second inning after three strikeouts by Jacob Woo. He explained it meant a lot to help his team get the win.
Manager, Joe Janicke, spoke on how the team has adjusted not only through this tournament, but the summer as a whole. They moved around the lineup eight times through summer, three of those times were in this tournament alone. He also spoke to his son's pitching for the night.
“Not only a proud coach, but a proud dad. Without breaking down, I’m very proud of him. When his fastball was on, I think he threw 56 strikes out of 80. He’s come a long way and the lessons have paid off, and he pitched a big game.”
Lincoln Ploog, who hit three for three, is anticipated to take the mound for the rematch. During the tournament, Ploog has relief pitched five shutout innings for SoCal.
“I have a good feeling I will start. I’m ready for it… [Hawaii has] big hitters, like, they’re really powerful, so I’ll try to stay, like, on the outside of them.”
Nolan Saldana, also hitting three for three, had his best game of the tournament and spoke about his adjustments during the game.
“I realized on the first hit that I was super early, so on the second one, I stayed back and then got a hit. On the third one, I was like, I’m just going to do the same thing. Stood back and got a hit…I think I’m more confident than ever, ready for tomorrow.”
The next game will be a rematch of last year's championship with SoCal vs. Hawaii, and will be held at Al Houghton Stadium at 6 p.m. on August 7.