Last week, seven games were played by the six Los Banos Little League teams (Majors Division), all vying for the 2026 City League Championship.
The first game featured the Braves hosting the Red Sox, and behind the hitting of Emilio Guillen, Kevin Morfin and Enzo Lopez and his pitching, the Braves routed the Red Sox by 12–1 to advance in the winners’ bracket.
In the nightcap, the Padres hosted the Giants, and behind the 16-strikeout performance of Nico Caropreso, the Padres eked out a 1–0 victory, also advancing in the winners’ bracket.
The Giants came back in their next game to defeat the Dodgers by 11–3 behind the 3 RBI performance of Jack Llanez, the hitting of Richie Barba and the pitching of Lawson Mitchell.
In the next contest, the Cardinals trailed the Red Sox by 7–0 from the second inning on, only to come back with 8 runs in the top of the fifth inning and three more in the sixth inning to defeat the Red Sox by 11–7.
Emmitt Erickson and Daniel Simons paced the Cardinals with 2 hits and 3 RBIs each.
However, that was all for the Cardinals, as in their next game in the tournament, they dropped a 13–1 decision to the Giants.
Andres Chavez, Jordan Rodriguez, Tyson Loebig, Mateo De La Rosa and Quinten Gomes all banged out hits for the Giants, and Llanez added three more RBIs on a pair of doubles.
Now it was the battle of the undefeated, as the Padres hosted the Braves to see which team would advance in the winners’ bracket.
Caropreso led off the game for the Padres and belted a homerun over the left field fence, and backed it up with another 16-strikeout performance on the mound to lead the Padres to a 2–0 victory over the Braves.
Braxton Soares, Adrian Rodriguez and Donnie Grifall combined base hits for the second Padres run.
Finally, the Braves rebounded from their loss to the Padres to return and defeat the Giants behind the pitching of Morfin and the hitting of Guillen, Jose Zamora, Jay Luna, Noah Sandoval, Mateo Guttierez and Eli Flores by 7–0.
With their victory, the Braves advanced to the finals, where they had to face the undefeated Padres and defeat them twice. The first game was to be played on June 1.
A victory by the Braves would mean a final game between the same two teams on June 2 to decide the championship of the 2026 Little League City Tournament.
