‘Comeback Kids' sweep through District 34 tourney, again

For this particular Porterville All-Stars squad — ages 12 through 14 — winning the District 34 Little League Championship is becoming deja-vu.

With Saturday morning’s 16-6 pounding over the Exeter All-Stars in the championship game, these boys have won three straight district championships starting as 10-year-olds.

That’s not to say it’s getting old, however.

“They’re still excited,” assistant coach J.R. Flores assured.

In fact, the boys seem to win so often that the Pizza Factory on Henderson — where they celebrate each victory — should probably give them a discount.

Nelson Roberts, who rotates between pitcher and shortstop, pitched a complete game against Exeter for the win.

“He struggled a little at first,” admitted Flores, who said his squad was down 4-0 after the second inning. “But we kept him in there and he came through for us.”

Zach Sexton, Brandon Kehoe and Eric Lopez also came through, hitting three-run, two-run and another two-run homers, respectively, as they piled on a 12-run fourth inning.

The boys have essentially earned the distinction as “The Comeback Kids” of the tournament after rallying from a 10-1 deficit against the same team on Thursday to win, 16-12.

The semifinals win was made even more dramatic since they lost their best slugger, Nick Aguilar, who went down with a broken ankle while trying to steal second base. In similar fashion to the championship game, Porterville racked up eight runs in the fourth inning to go up 11-10 and eventually put the game away.

“The boys wanted to win it for Nick,” Flores said. “That ended up being one of our best games of the year.”

While Porterville has grown accustomed to winning at the district level, the All-Stars hope to go further this season than they have in the two past years.

In 2007, they went to state in San Jose after sweeping through sectionals and dropped out.

Last year, Porterville was disappointed in the sectionals in Exeter.

This year, Porterville will head to Linden for sectionals. But because they are at least 12 years of age, they would forego state tournaments in favor of a path that could eventually take them to the Little League World Series in New York.

That is, if they win.

Flores said the boys have responded to the pleas of their manager, Chris Beltran so far.

“Each time we’re down, Chris tells them, ‘Don’t die on me now, don’t give up!’” Flores said. “They realize this is their last chance before they hit the Babe Ruth league next year.”