Merced Volunteers open up state tournament with shutout win over Millikan.

Jaret Mello threw six scoreless innings and Clayton Hall launched a two-run home run to help lead the Merced Volunteers to a 4-0 win over the Millikan Rams of Long Beach in the first day of the American Legion State Tournament in Yountville on Friday morning.

Mello scattered four hits and four walks and finished with four strikeouts to pick up the win.

“He was outstanding,” said Merced coach Rollo Adams, whose team improved to 16-11-1 on the summer. “We played good defense behind him. He threw strikes when he needed to. He pitched out of a couple jams where the walks came into play.”

The Volunteers scored one run on three hits in the first inning. Hall singled and came around to score on an RBI groundout by Daniel Beaird.

Merced struck for three runs in the third inning. RJ Garcia doubled in Brandon Ruiz to start the rally. Two outs later, Hall crushed a two-run homer to extend the Volunteers’ lead to 4-0.

Merced finished with 10 hits. Hall, Joe Flores and Kadon Floro all finished with two hits each. Hall finished with two runs and two RBIs. He also closed out the game with a scoreless seventh inning.

Coming into the tournament, Adams’ main concern was the Volunteers’ ability to come up with the big two-out hits. That was again a problem against the Rams as Merced left six runners in scoring position through the first four innings.

“Some of our guys making mistakes are players who have been in the program for a couple years,” Adams said. “I think we played down to the level of the competition. It’s just a matter of our guys showing up with more energy tomorrow.”

The Volunteers will face the winner of Humboldt and West Hills on Saturday at 3 p.m. Floro will get the start on the mound for Merced.

This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 1:52 PM.