The Saratogans won the 8-year-old title a year ago with a 4-0 record, and they backed that up by winning the district's 9-year-old championship with six straight victories.

Saratoga opened the tournament with a thrilling 9-8 win over Almaden in extra innings, then beat American, Union and Cambrian Park in three straight 10-run rule wins. The locals crushed Branham Hills 10-1 in the semifinals and wrapped up the championship with a 9-3 win over Almaden.

The local kids outscored their opponents 86-21 in the six games and posted an impressive .480 team batting average.

Saratoga clinched the title with its second win over Almaden. The locals were up just 4-3 when they rallied for four runs in the fifth to break the game wide open. Neil Bruner tripled to open the innings and hits by Will Dennis, Kai Kirk and Kyle Penuen kept the rally going.

Bruner came on to close things out on the hill for Saratoga, striking out five in the final two frames to help his club nail down the win.

It was a thrilling win over Almaden that got Saratoga started in the tournament. The local boys were down 8-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth, but rallied for six runs to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

Almaden had the potential go-ahead run on third in the top of the seventh, but Bruner pitched out the jam by striking out Almaden's lead-off man to end the inning.

Saratoga came back to open its half of the seventh with two walks before Georgie Ellenikiotis singled through the infield to drive home the game-winning run.

Kirk tossed four shutout innings and Colin Johnson ripped a pair of home runs to lead Saratoga to a lopsided win over American in pool play.

Ellenikiotis blanked Union for four innings in another Saratoga win on the 10-run rule, and the locals came back to pound Cambrian by the 10-run rule in the final game of pool play.

The four wins pushed Saratoga in the tournament's championship round, and the locals opened with a 10-1 win over Branham Hills. Kirk flipped four more shutout innings and the Saratoga defense turned a couple of double-plays in the victory.

Kia Fariba, Dominic Guercio, Troy Doles, Sumner Vogel, Shane Smith and Tyler Borch were other members of the championship team. Mike Bruner and Tony Ellenikiotis were the co-managers and Dan Doles was a coach.