The Antioch Babe Ruth 13-year-old all-star team recently competed in the Northern California State Tournament, finishing third in an extremely talented field. Although the team fell short of its ultimate goal - a berth in the Babe Ruth Pacific Southwest Regional - the entire team benefited from playing against top-flight competition.

Antioch earned the right to compete in the state tournament after winning its district tournament with a 3-0 record. The Antioch all-stars defeated Vallejo twice, 7-5 and 21-13, behind outstanding starting pitching by Tyler Lawrence. They also earned a 9-7 win over Northern Solano. Patrick McKnight picked up the W.

Although every member of the team contributed offensively, first baseman Ronnie Brohman's 4-for-6 performance in the championship game stood out as one of the highlights of the entire tournament.

Catcher Brandon Wu set the defensive tone for the tournament early, throwing out three runners in the first two innings of Antioch's opening round win over Vallejo. Wu's aptitude for throwing out baserunners persuaded other teams to abandon their running games, taking Vallejo, a running team, completely out of its game.

The Antioch all-stars played well in the Northern California State Tournament, finishing third in the field, but simply didn't get enough quality pitching to win the whole thing.

Tri Valley emerged as Antioch's rival in the state tournament, defeating the local all-stars 13-6 in the first game of the event. However, Antioch exacted its revenge three games later.

After falling to Tri Valley in its opening-round match-up, Antioch went on to rattle off consecutive wins against host Alameda (11-7) and Washington Manor of San Leandro (11-1 in five innings) to set up a rematch against Tri Valley.

Antioch went into the seventh and final inning down 9-3 against Tri Valley, but came back to win in dramatic fashion. Trailing 9-7 with the bases loaded and two outs, Lucas Shapiro stepped to the plate and blasted a 350-foot bomb to the right-centerfield fence, clearing the bases and giving Antioch the 10-9, walk-off win.

Although Antioch went on to lose its next game against eventual tournament champion Palo Alto 13-6, eliminating the team from the event, the Antioch players can hang their hats on the strong showing in Alameda.

"This was the biggest team I've ever coached, about six or seven guys on the team around six-feet tall, and they could hit," said Antioch manager Darren Machado, who's been coaching Babe Ruth baseball for the past 18 years. "We averaged about 10 runs per game; we just gave up too many runs - that's why we didn't win. This team was close, it was just missing something - I don't know what it was."