Giants Repeat as 25+ Best in the West Tourney Champions
For the second straight year the San José Giants are Best in the West Labor Day Tournament Champions at Woodland-Davis winning the 25+ division.
The Giants cruised through the round robin portion of the tournament entering the playoffs as the top seed.
Semifinal game was against league rival San José Marlins and paced by Mike Hoefs mammoth homer over the scoreboard in center field. The Giants never trailed in the 5-1 victory. Jeremiah Struble went 8 innings and allowed only a single unearned run. Mike Denevi pitched a perfect ninth inning to close out the game.
The championship game opponent was another SJMSBL league member, the Santa Clara Twins.
This would be the second meeting of the Giants and Twins in the tourney as the Giants shut out the Twins with Brett Solano tossing the shutout.
Kyle Brueggemann started on the bump for the Giants in the finals. The Giants got their offense going with a huge two-out two-RBI hit by Curtis Gomez scoring Phillip Thrappas and Chris Chambers. The Twins tied the game in the 7th with a two-run HR by Lamont. The score remained tied 2-2 going into the bottom of the 9th when Chris Chambers smacked a one-out double to right. The throw beat Chambers to second base but he made an unbelievable slide around the tag. Gomez moved Chambers to 3rd on a ground out to short. With two outs Justin Bruce hit a slow roller to short that he legged out for the walk-off winning hit!
Brueggemann tossed a complete game in the championship game for the Giants.
Giants pitching allowed only 5 runs (three earned) in five tournament games. The amazing pitching staff consisted of Clay Schmeisser, Nate Garcia, Jeremiah Struble, Brett Solano, Kyle Brueggemann and the legendary Mike Denevi.
The Giants are off to the MSBL World Series in Arizona next month to compete in the tourney's tough 25+ division.