Another season is in the books, and another crop of outstanding young baseball players have been grouped together for 5 different age groups to compete for the home team in Claremont Little League’s All-Star Tournament.

Claremont’s 8 and 9-year-old All-Stars kicked off the triple-elimination tournament against one of Glendora’s 4 teams on Tuesday evening. Claremont was unable to get much run-support, while Glendora jumped out to a big lead early on and cruised to a 15-6 victory.

This was the Claremont All-Stars first game of the tournament. Glendora, meanwhile, dispatched their city rivals earlier in the week 16-8. Glendora pitcher Aidan Blanco, 3^rd baseman J.T. Greep, and speedster Tyler McNamara all showed their skills in a solid performance, and looked to repeat it Tuesday against Claremont.

Each team scored a run in the first inning, and then Claremont’s Aidan Ross pitched a 1-2-3 2^nd inning. Two outstanding sliding grabs by Chris Chavez in center field robbed Glendora of base hits.

The wheels came off the wagon in the 3^rd and 4^th innings for Claremont, however. Glendora put 5 runs on the board in each frame with some exceptional base running and key Claremont fielding errors.

In the bottom of the fourth, Claremont pulled back a couple of runs. Ross led off with a single and shortstop Matty Graves walked. Third baseman Alek Miller loaded the bases when he smacked a base hit up the middle. Jude Rhoa came to the plate and brought home 2 runs with a fielder’s choice ground ball.

Glendora got out of the jam, and tacked on 4 more runs of their own. Claremont answered in the dying frames to make the score line a respectable 15-6, against a red-hot team with excellent pitching.

Results from Claremont’s 8-9s All-Stars will be posted on the League Lineup website with the following address: www.leaguelineup.com/welcome.asp?url=ca20.

Elsewhere in Claremont All-Star fixtures, the 9 and 10-year-olds will take on San Dimas on Saturday, June 29 at 10 a.m., at Pelota Park in La Verne. The 10-11s will also play San Dimas on Saturday at the same time, but at Goddard Middle School in Glendora. Claremont’s 11-12s play San Dimas on Friday, June 28 at 5 p.m. at Sandburg Middle School in Glendora. Finally, the Claremont Juniors play Glendora National on Friday at 5 p.m. at Glendora South Hills Fields.

—Chris Oakley