COMPTON — Within one hit of seeing a banner season shockingly conclude, the Arroyo Seco Saints 18U baseball team collected consecutive outs and came through with a 5-4 victory versus the host Urban Youth Academy team in West Zone Palomino Tournament action Saturday afternoon.
“This became an emotional game and it shouldn’t have been,” Saints skipper Aaron Milam said. “When you have an opportunity to knock out a team, you do and we just didn’t do that.”
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With the victory, defending tournament champion Arroyo Seco (27-5) punched its ticket to Sunday’s second-chance bracket elimination game versus the either nearby Arcadia Astros or the PAL Giants.
Despite being thoroughly dominated throughout most of the contest, the Urban Youth Academy only trailed, 5-2, heading to the top of the seventh.
The Urban Youth Academy put itself back in contention when its first batter of the inning, Trent Hammond, reached on an error at third base that broke a streak of 16 straight retired by Arroyo Seco.