Seven teams from Northern California competed in the tournament's 15-and-under bracket. Competing in their first all 15s tournament, the Oaks emerged victorious with a 12-4 victory over the South Placer Demons in the championship game.

After losing its opening game to South Placer, Oakland strung together three straight wins to reach the title game.

In the first contest, Oaks starting pitcher Alex Crosby, who attends Bishop O'Dowd High School, was relieved after four innings holding a 5-4 lead. After the Demons came back to take a 9-5 lead in the fifth, the Oaks rallied in the sixth on a towering two-run shot over the center-field wall by O'Dowd's Tillman Pugh to close the gap to 9-7.

The Oaks' hopes of overtaking the Demons were dashed when the game was called upon expiration of the tournament's two-hour time limit.

In its second game, Oakland erased an early four-run deficit to defeat the Petaluma Players 10-8. The Oaks scored four runs in the fourth and six more in the fifth to overcome the Players.

The rallies were keyed by two-out run-scoring doubles by Mission San Jose High School's Alex Kiehl and O'Dowd's Graham Rodriguez. O'Dowd's Zander Capell went 3-for-3 at the plate.

"In the second game, we were fired up," pitcher/first baseman Crosby said. "We had to win to have a good seed the next day. Our batters came through."

A fine performance by Oaks starting pitcher Scott Camp of St. Joseph Notre Dame and reliever Chad Santos of Bishop O'Dowd sealed the win. Santos entered with the bases loaded in the sixth and successfully staved off the Players' late game rally.

Based on the results of the first day's matchups, Oakland faced a rematch with Petaluma in the third game, played Sunday morning in Elk Grove.

Oakland starter Juan Colon of Skyline kept Petaluma in check and the Oaks again emerged victorious, scoring three times with two outs in the last inning to defeat Petaluma 6-5.

"We had a shaky first inning," Crosby said. "But we began eating our way back into it. When they took the lead (near) the end, we were pretty nervous. We had a time limit and had just 12 minutes to play. We quickly had two outs."

A two-out double by Michael Parks of Kennedy-Fremont, followed by a misplayed fly ball to short center by Geo Montgomery of Hercules High School, provided the Oaks with a dramatic come-from-behind victory.

Having reached the semifinals, the Oaks' depth of pitching weighed in their favor.

Oaks manager Curtis Sandeford, who is head coach at Berkeley High School, and coach Lanny Kelly, St. Mary's' junior varsity coach, went with O'Dowd's Ben Zemmelman against the Rohnert Park Wildcats, a team the Oaks had beaten earlier in the season.

The move paid off. Oakland broke open a 4-4 contest, scoring three runs in the top half of the final inning to win 7-4. Hits by St. Joseph's Johnathon Meagher, Kiehl and Parks sparked the rally and sent Oakland to championship game later in the afternoon.

In the title game, the Oaks once again faced the South Placer Demons, with Rodriguez set to take the hill.

Once again, the Oaks' pitching depth proved critical. Playing their third game of the day, the explosive Oaks' offense scored early and often, mounting a 9-3 lead by the third inning.

Colon collected three hits and Crosby and Skyline's Joshua Chase had two hits apiece. After the Oaks added three more runs in the fifth, the game was called with the eight-run rule in effect.

Just one-half hour separated Sunday's games.

Oakland catchers Gino Galli and Colon combined to gun down seven base runners, and Oaks middle infielders Carlos Perez of O'Dowd, Lanny Kelly from St. Mary's, Albert Gilbert, and Montgomery combined to complete four double plays.

During the postgame awards ceremony, Crosby was presented with the tournament's offensive MVP award.

Bill Kruissink contributed to this story.

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