Players and coaches of the history-making Amador East Little League All-Stars pose under the Kelley Field banner in Stockton. Photo by: Jerry Budrick Frank Halvorson as a player in the Sundown Little League in 1968. photo courtesy of Lorraine Halvorson Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch

"To boldly go where no one has gone before," was the daunting task that faced the Amador East Little League All-Stars last weekend. By winning the District 15 championship, the 12 skilled, young players on the team had earned the right to travel to Stockton's Kelley Field for two games in the double-elimination tournament that would determine the winner of the Section 6 playoffs. The competition was fierce.

Falling victim to an unfortunate draw, Amador first had to face Fresno's perennially powerful River Park All-Stars - confident, experienced players from a league that has claimed four state championships in the last 10 years.

"We all have batting cages at home," said a friendly parent from the River Park team. "We also have six former professional baseball players as coaches, advisers and personal trainers for the kids."

Amador's game against River Park didn't last long, called after four innings, with the score of 10-0 triggering the Little League's mercy rule.

Starting pitcher Hayden "Papa Bear" Grandon held his own for a while, but was rocked by a pair of home runs, one of them a grand slam, in the second inning. Khouri Kling came on in relief and did a creditable job of stopping the run flow, backed as he was by fine defensive efforts.

In a remarkable coincidence, Amador County's first trip to the Section 6 playoffs in more than 20 years was to Kelley Field, in Stockton, home of the Sundown Little League. This is the very field that Amador coach Frank Halvorson and his four brothers had played on as members of teams in the Sundown league in the 1960s.

"All five sons played here," said Bill Halvorson, Frank's dad. "Three were catchers, including Frank. I always figured the catcher learns more than anyone about the game."

Apparently, Bill Halvorson was right. Frank went on to play for St. Mary's High School, then College of the Pacific, where he was named MVP of the team and All-league. It was during his baseball-playing days at C.O.P. that Frank met his wife, Lori.

Amador never mounted a serious scoring threat against River Park, and the team's only hit in the game came off the bat of Ryan Halvorson, causing Sundown umpire Jeff Monckton to remark, "He hits just like his dad." Monckton has been around Sundown Little League since the Halvorson brothers played.

In their second game of the double-elimination tournament, on Sunday afternoon, Amador faced Visalia, who had lost, 7-3, to LeMoore on Saturday.

Joey Guidi was on the mound and the first Visalia batters were erased by fielding gems turned in by Gio Casillas at shortstop and Sean Purdy at second base. Amador looked to be in contention. The third batter, however, singled and, eventually, came around to score on a wild pitch and passed balls.

Visalia's starting pitcher, Rinchen Barbee, cast a spell on the Amador batters from the first pitch, and he held them scoreless until relief arrived in the sixth and final inning.

Only Casillas managed to get a hit off Barbee, a single to center in the fourth inning, and the game ended after six innings, with the score 10-0.

The Amador East Little League All-Stars' remarkable season was at an end.

After the games, a general consensus among Amador fans and coaches, Frank Halvorson foremost, was that the sparsely populated county of Amador is at a point where drawing a team of All-Stars from only half of its players is a formula for certain failure in post-season play.

"In my opinion, it just doesn't make sense to have two leagues," said Halvorson. "Back when they divided Amador County Little League into East and West, there were 1,000 kids playing. Right now, we have about 430."

There will be many months of off-season for Amador Little League directors to discuss this.