East Bay youth baseball team makes Cooperstown history after COVID spoiled 2020 trip

An opportunity for the California Dawgs 12-and-under baseball team to play in a tournament at the Cooperstown All Star Village in New York was lost last summer when the pandemic wiped out virtually all youth sports activity from coast to coast.

To make up for it, organizers in Cooperstown invited the Lamorinda-based Dawgs and other teams from across the country to return to the area this year for an inaugural 13-and-under wood bat tournament held earlier this month.

“It was fun, a good change of pace,” Dawgs player Cody Michlitsch said of using wood bats instead of aluminum. “We had to make some adjustments, but it was fun. It also makes a nice sound off the bat.”

Dawgs coach Tony Dudum said each player brought along two or three wooden bats and purchased others after they arrived in the Cooperstown area.

“Any time there was a hit or a foul ball, the kids got excited. ‘Hey, did you break your bat?’” said Dudum, a Campolindo High graduate who now lives in Lafayette. “It was a great time for them to check it out. They had never played a lot of baseball with a wooden bat and it gave them an understanding of what it feels like and what the comparison is to an aluminum bat.

“They loved it.”

It showed.

The Dawgs went 8-1-1 during the tournament, which included a 3-2 win over a sponsored team from Houston, the Easton Scorpions, in a tense championship game. There was a team from Lafayette, the Panthers, in the tournament as well as teams from New York, Utah, Colorado, and Georgia.

In the final, the Dawgs broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the sixth inning on a solo home run by catcher Owen Patterson. Pitcher Justin Arraiz then finished off a complete game by shutting out Houston in the bottom of the sixth.

On their way to becoming the first-ever 13-and-under Cooperstown All-Star Village wood bat champs, the Dawgs hit 10 home runs. Graham Schlicht led the team with four, followed by two each from Blake Robison and Arraiz and one from both Patterson and Brock Artist.

Of the Dawgs’ eight wins, six were by two runs or less.

“We were just there to have fun and play together,” Dawgs player Tommy Terhar said. “Without being super stressed out over hitters or things that you wish you would have done instead of having fun, it really motivated us to forget about the past and focus on the present and the future.”

The Dawgs players previously knew each other but had not played together as a team prior to the Cooperstown tournament June 5-10. Last week, the team was in Omaha, Nebraska to compete in another tournament.

They’ll never forget their time in Cooperstown, though.

“It was really special to have a makeup year, seeing as how last year we weren’t able to do it,” Terhar said. “This year getting a chance to go back there for the last time and play was really special, and it’s something that may never happen again.”

Other Dawgs team members are Eli Dudum, Colby Ebner, Everett Zellmer. Luke McLeod and Riley Gates. Coach Dudum is assisted by Doug Robison and Glen Gates, who also live in Lafayette.