MESA – Douglas’ 13-14 year old All-Stars fell to Scottsdale Mountain View 9-5 in the state Little League Juniors tournament championship game Saturday.

Bruce Whetten/The Daily Dispatch Douglas’ 13-14 year old All-Stars, shown above with their District 8 championship banner, lost to Scottsdale Mountain View 9-5 in the Arizona Little League Juniors championship Saturday. Douglas was 6-0 in pool play and beat Casa Grande 8-2 in the semifinals before losing to Mountain View in the championship. The team is coached by Eliseo Daniel, Chris Mariscal, Gilbert Rojas and Robert and Shawn Leigh. Team members are, in no particular order, Jason Sanez, Samuel Wright, Esteban Daniel, Christian Dorame, Xavier Altamirano, Rufino Salinas, Luis Barrios, Gabriel Ortega, Jorge Escalante, Diego Resendiz, Miles Granados, Fernando Rojas and Roy Aguirre. Counting the District 8 and state Little League tournament the Douglas 13-14 year old All-Stars posted an 11-1 record.

The loss was Douglas’ first in district and state tournament play snapping an 11-game winning streak giving the local All-Stars an 11-1 record. Mountain View advances to the regional tournament which begins today in California.

The championship game was part of a doubleheader the two teams played Saturday. Douglas beat Casa Grande 8-2 in one semifinal game while Mountain View beat High Desert 10-4 in the other.

The championship game was also the third game the Douglas All-Stars played in an 18 hour stretch.

Against Mountain View Douglas jumped out to a 4-0 lead scoring four times in the top half of the first inning. Esteban Daniel led off the inning with a single and Miles Granados followed with a walk. Christian Dorame belted a two run triple scoring both Daniel and Granados. Diego Resendiz singled in Dorame and Resendiz later scored on Rufino Salinas’ double.

Mountain View came back with a run in the bottom half of the second before adding five more runs in the third taking a 6-4 lead.

Mountain View tacked on two more runs in the fourth to go up 8-4.

Daniel’s run for Douglas in the top of the sixth cut the lead to 8-5 only to see Mountain View counter with a run in the sixth to go up 9-5.

Dorame started the game for Douglas and went all seven innings giving up nine runs off 13 hits while fanning five and walking one.

Daniel hit 4 for 4 for Douglas. Resendiz and Dorame each hit 2 for 4, Salinas 2 for 2, Granados was 1 for 2 and Sanez 1 for 3.

After beating Prescott 6-4 Friday night the Douglas All-Stars were back on the field early Saturday morning facing Casa Grande in a semifinal game.

Luis Barrios run in the top half of the first inning gave Douglas a 1-0 lead. Granados scored on a bases loaded walk to Daniel in the second increasing that lead to 2-0.

The Douglas All-Stars added another two runs in the third and followed that with two more in the fifth increasing their lead to 6-0.

Casa Grande scored its first run in the sixth making the score 6-1. In the top of the seventh Granados and Samuel Wright each scored for Douglas as the local All-Stars increased its lead to 8-1.

Xavier Altamirano was the winning pitcher giving up two runs off eight hits, fanning three and walking three.

Douglas had nine hits in the game. Dorame was 3 for 4, Sanez 2 for 4, Granados was 1 for 2, Daniel and Altamirano each hit 1 for 4; Wright was 1 for 1.

As disappointed as he is with losing the championship game Eliseo Daniel, manager for the Douglas All-Stars said he very pleased with how his kids played Saturday.

“One bad inning cost us,” he said looking back to the third inning against Mountain View in which his team gave up five runs. “It’s a shame it was a single elimination championship game.”

Not making any excuses Coach Daniel said it was hot Saturday and the kids were showing the effects of playing a doubleheader plus the game the night before.

“I still feel we were the better team but that’s baseball,” he said. “You have a winner and you have a loser and we came up on the short end; unfortunately it ended our season.”

The coach said considering 12 other teams would have loved to have had the chance Douglas did to play for the state championship he felt his team gave it a good try.

“These kids knew when it was over they had done all that they could,” Daniel said. “I’m really proud of them - they gave it all that they had.”

The Douglas All-Stars had been away from home for 10 days eating fast food and staying in a motel room in Mesa while playing in the tournament.

On top of that Coach Daniel lost one of his assistant coaches Gilbert Rojas and his son Fernando, after they suffered a death in the family earlier in the tournament.

Daniel said losing coach Rojas really hurt because of his experience at the high school and state playoff levels.

The coach quickly added his other two assistant coaches Chris Mariscal and Shawn Leigh did all that they could do to help but not having that extra coach hurt.

The coach said he’d like to thank not only his coaches but also the community of Douglas for its support as his team worked to raise money for districts and state.

“This town came be proud of these kids,” the coach said. “They left it all on the field.”