The Ceres Blaze 10-and-under travel baseball team faced an uphill battle after dropping its first game at the 2017 Pony Baseball West Zone-NorCal Northeast Mustang Super Region Tournament.
Facing elimination, Ceres reeled off six straight victories on its way to claiming the title on Sunday at George Costa Ball Field Complex in Ceres.
"It was exciting to see the boys play like that on a big stage and at home," head coach Carlos Guizar said. "Honestly, after losing the first game, I had a feeling they were going to surprise me."
The Blaze edged Rocklin Black 8-6 in the finals.
Ceres forced the winner-take-all game with a 7-0 victory against the same team.
The Blaze avenged a 3-2 loss suffered during the first day of the double-elimination tournament on July 20.
"We got timely hits," Guizar said. "Our pitching did their job. We were getting amazing plays from our defense. We were firing on all cylinders."
Ceres improved its overall record to 29-3-2.
The Blaze have placed first five times this season.
Ceres' roster features 12 players, including Keaton Singleton, Tyler Castro, Carlos Guizar Jr., Aiden Maines, Gilbert Zamora, Marques Duran, Vincent Castrejon, Garret Garcia, Kyan Bowen, Jonathan Ramirez, Daniel Davis and Alex Wood.
"It's the same group of boys (that won Super Regionals and qualified for Zone with the Ceres Blaze 9s last year)," coach Guizar said. I've been coaching them since they were seven. They're very talented."
The Blaze collected wins against Vacaville (9-6) on Sunday, Carmel (17-5) and Fremont (6-5) on Saturday, and San Francisco Youth Baseball (10-4) on Friday prior to beating Rocklin Black twice at the 2017 Super Regionals.
"It's mind blowing," Carlos Guizar Sr. said. "We lost the first game and won six straight. The boys never gave up."
The Blaze advanced to the Zone Tournament, which will be staged July 27-30, in Los Alamitos.
"It's a big accomplishment," coach Guizar said. "It's going to be a tougher road. We just want to compete. We'll be ready."
Ceres will face Los Alamitos All-Stars in the opening round on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
The top team from the double-elimination tournament be awarded a berth to the Pony Baseball World Series.
