Two Tampa area Little League baseball teams are off to a hot start in region tournament play this weekend. New Tampa Little League and Palma Ceia Junior Baseball have both automatically qualified for the semifinals winning through the first two days of pool play.

New Tampa Little League Baseball

New Tampa Little League is playing in the Southeast Region in Warner Robins, Ga. and has a 2-0 record through the first two days of pool play. The Little League age group (also referred to as Majors) is players from ages 9-12 years of age. NTLL earned a 5-2 win against West Virginia on Friday and a 14-1 win against Virginia on Saturday.

Friday against Reston National, Virginia, NTLL got all it needed in the first inning starting with a leadoff triple from Aaron Guiang. Guiang scored in the next at bat and the team got the deciding runs later in the inning a two run homerun from Bryce Martin. Martin was also stellar in relief for his team, pitching 4.1 innings of no-hit baseball striking out seven.

In Saturday’s game against Fairmont, West Virginia, the New Tampa team had a huge offensive showing including a homerun each from Guiang, Conor Grady and Clayton Coringrato. Coringrato hit a grand slam in the fourth and was 2-for-3 in the game with five RBI and scored four runs.

Ethan Thomas has started and earned the win in both games. Thomas has seven strikeouts in two appearances and is 2-for-5 at the plate

New Tampa takes on Irmo, South Carolina Monday at 10 a.m. in its final match of pool play.
The South Carolina (0-2) team has had some bad luck early losing its first two games 14-11 and 8-6.

New Tampa holds wins over the other two teams in the bracket and is assured a spot in the semifinal rounds beginning Wednesday. The semifinals will air on ESPN2 Wednesday and the finals will air on ESPN on Friday.

Palma Ceia Little League Junior Baseball

Palma Ceia’s bats have been alive to start the Junior Baseball (ages 13-14) Southeast Region Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina as the team is 2-0, with wins against West Virginia and Tennessee in pool play.

Friday, PCLL won 21-1 against Saint Albans, West Virginia sparked by a two homerun, six RBI, five run performance from Cole Gibbs.

PCLL notched a guaranteed a spot in the semifinals with an 8-3 win Saturday against Clarksville Northwest, Tennessee.

Through the two games Jake Bak, Ronnie Ramirez and Trent Wessel have each chipped in with multi-hit games, while the combined pitching efforts of Nicholas Kavouklis, Patrick Kiszla and Ben Randall have held opponents to only four runs. PCLL has also gotten a spark at the plate from its bench as sub Dean Herman is batting near .900 for the tournament so far and help defensively from Carter Leslie, who has filled in all over the field.

The team plays its last game in pool play Sunday against Elkton Community, Virginia (2-0) to decide seeding for the semifinals beginning Monday. 

Check back with us here at the TBO.com Youth Sports Report Sunday and Monday for more results.