Michael Lev: Canyon View, Randolph Little League teams embody community, camaraderie

What’s better than one Tucson Little League team vying for a spot in the World Series?

How ’bout two!

Randolph’s junior All-Star squad and Canyon View’s 12U club won their state tournaments last week. Both are playing in West Region tournaments this week.

Randolph opens play at 10 a.m. Thursday against Dublin Little League, representing Northern California. The tournament is in Bend, Oregon, about three hours southeast of Portland. The winner of the 12-team, double-elimination event advances to the Junior League Baseball World Series in Taylor, Michigan.

Canyon View starts at 4 p.m. Saturday against Hilo, Hawaii. Four teams representing Arizona, Hawaii and Northern and Southern California are in San Bernardino seeking a trip to Williamsport for the Little League World Series — the one that’s broadcast on ESPN and ABC. The first three games of the West Region tournament are being streamed on ESPN+; the final three are set to air on ESPN.

Neither Randolph nor Canyon View ever has made it this far on any level of Little League baseball. They’re among several Tucson-area teams that have excelled during All-Star season.

Marana’s junior softball team is playing in the World Series this week in Kirkland, Washington. Rincon’s 10U baseball team won the state tournament, and its 11U team was the runner-up. Sunnyside’s 12U and intermediate baseball teams were runners-up, as was its 10U softball team. San Xavier’s senior baseball team won the state tournament.

Not bad for a metro area that places a distant second in size and population in Arizona.

“We’ve had a stellar year,” said Carl Thompson, the administrator for District 5 (northern half of Tucson) and chairman of Arizona State Little League. “We have a great group of young ballplayers across Tucson. It’s aways been a baseball town. It’s morphed into a heavy soccer town as well. But baseball has always been our roots.”

I’m a big advocate of Little League, which, unfortunately, has lost a share of the youth baseball and softball markets to club and travel teams. Little League brings communities together, a heartening and hopeful development during a time when the United States too often feels like the Divided States.

The Randolph and Canyon View teams embody that spirit.

Comeback kids

Randolph, which represents District 12 (southern half of Tucson), lost its first game in the 13-team junior baseball state tournament. To win it, Randolph would have to take seven elimination games in a row — a Herculean task given that even the best Little League teams only have so many viable pitchers.

Displaying dogged determination and uncanny composure, Randolph did it. Many of the games required comebacks, including the first championship-round contest against Mountain Pines. Randolph trailed 2-0 entering the fifth inning before scoring four runs. Five more in the seventh led to a 9-3 final and set up a winner-take-all rematch. Randolph fell behind 1-0 in the first but responded with five runs. When Mountain Pines narrowed its deficit to 5-4 in the third, Randolph tacked on three more. The final was 9-6.

“I just teach the boys, don’t stop, don’t give up, keep playing, keep fighting until the umpire says ‘ballgame,’ leave everything on the field, 110% all the time,” said Randolph coach Bryan Hendrick, father of Andrew, who will start on the mound against Dublin. “It was just amazing to watch some of those games.”

Then the real challenge began. The junior state tournament wrapped up last Thursday. Randolph Little League president Bernadette Salgado (Hendrick’s wife) and the league board had to figure out how to get the team to Bend by Monday, and find a place for the players and coaches to stay. She estimated the total cost of the trip at $15,000.

“We won on a Thursday and got instructions on Friday morning on all the details, so we had to act fast,” Salgado said. “Being the president and being a parent, I was kind of worried. Like, ‘Oh my god, what are we gonna do?’ ”

That’s when the Randolph community stepped up. The league hosted a sendoff event at Field of Dreams. Board member Andrea Valenzuela-Galvan, mother of catcher and pitcher Aydan Galvan, set up a GoFundMe, seeking $5,000. It had raised about $3,500 as of Wednesday afternoon.

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“We made it work, because it’s for these boys,” Salgado said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

Camaraderie, chemistry

Canyon View breezed through the District 12 and state tournaments leading up to the championship round. CVLL didn’t lose a single game, and it won its first four games at state by an average of 9.3 runs.

Then Canyon View ran into a stud pitcher. Sunnyside’s Carlo Rivero allowed only one run and struck out 11 in 5 2/3 innings. Sunnyside won 2-1. For the first time in the postseason, Canyon View faced elimination.

Coach Zak Anderson’s boys were barely fazed.

“A couple players looked a little defeated,” said Anderson, father of Miles, the team’s starting first baseman and closer. “We took the half hour between games to reinforce why we were here, what led to our success.”

The CVLL All-Star team is built on a foundation of camaraderie. Most of the team has been together for the past three seasons. Coached by Anderson, those squads won the District 5 10U and 11U tournaments.

Anderson believes in taking pressure off his players by having them engage in off-field activities together, such as watching movies or playing table tennis, to build friendships and chemistry. And he believes in applying pressure to the opposition by putting balls in play.

Canyon View compiled 15 hits in the 9-3 clincher over Sunnyside. The top three hitters in the lineup, Raj Abramian, Braydon Rehm and Lukas Gerlach, combined to go 8 for 12.

Canyon View’s logistical challenges to get to San Bernardino weren’t as daunting as Randolph’s. But CVLL president Tim Lewis and his board wanted the players and coaches to have the best experience possible. So they rented a bus, for about $7,000, to ferry the team to Southern California. It’s scheduled to depart George Mehl Family Foothills Park at 7 a.m. Thursday.

“We figured that’s one way to ensure everybody checked in as a team,” Lewis said. “Some parents can’t be out there early. We didn’t want to risk overheating (their cars) or blowing a tire and being stuck in Blythe.

“Plus the team-camaraderie idea. They’ve spent the entire summer together. Keeping that synergy and energy going.”

After CVLL clinched its first state title, on-field pictures weren’t limited to the players and coaches. They included brothers and sisters, grandparents, friends and other Canyon View families.

That’s what it’s all about.

Canyon View Little League outlasts Sunnyside for Arizona state championship