Baseball: A.J. Balta, Christopher Rivera lead team in North Carolina

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Trying to make the U18 USA national team, A.J. Balta of Valencia and Christopher Rivera of El Dorado helped their Babe Ruth team defeat RBI, 5-4, in action at the Tournament of Stars in Cary, N.C. on Saturday.

Balta had two hits and is batting .375 for his 3-0 team. Rivera threw two scoreless innings of relief.

Jack Flaherty from Harvard-Westlake threw two shutout innings and struck out three to lead his American Amateur Baseball Congress team to a 3-0 win over American Legion. Seve Romo from El Dorado had two hits.

Mater Dei’s Jeremy Martinez had a walk-off home run to lift Pony to a 5-4 win over NABF.

Babe Ruth will play Pony for the gold medal on Sunday.

-- Eric Sondheimer