Sports briefs: Tiburon LL falls to Petaluma in heartbreaker, has second shot at title on Thursday

The Tiburon Peninsula Little League All-Stars fell in heartbreaking fashion in its first shot at the Section 1 Championship on Wednesday, falling 3-2 via walk-off in extra innings to Petaluma.

Tiburon, which is now 11-1 in All-Star play, took a 2-1 lead in the top of the seventh when Jack Webb scored on a passed ball. But Petaluma staged an epic rally in the bottom of the inning. Back-to-back singles and defensive interference on Tiburon landed runners on second and third with one out before a passed ball allowed the runner on third to score to tie the game at 2-2.

On the same play, the runner on second advanced to third and came in to score on another passed ball to the same batter a few pitches later, sending Petaluma home with a miraculous win.

Tiburon starter Will Coleman allowed just two hits and a run with nine strikeouts in five innings on the mound. Noah Gersch, who had a game-high two hits, finished off the final 1.1 innings. Neither of the two runs he allowed were earned.

Since Tiburon was still in the winner’s bracket in the Section Tournament, it will have one last chance to claim the title in a winner-take-all game against Petaluma on Thursday on 7 p.m. at Will C. Wood Elementary in Alameda.

• Tuesday was the end of the road for the Mill Valley 10s All-Stars as they fell 7-1 to North Oakland in the semifinals of the Section 1 Tournament. North Oakland, the team that beat Mill Valley 3-2 in the first game of Section play last weekend, held a 3-1 advantage after the first inning and then broke the game open with three more runs in the fifth. North Oakland pitchers limited Mill Valley, which had scored 25 runs over its previous two games, to just three hits. Nickolas Welter drove in the lone run for Mill Valley while Levi Weber had two hits and pitched 2.2 innings out of the bullpen.

Baseball

The San Rafael Pacifics blanked the Martinez Sturgeon 6-0 on Tuesday for the fourth win in their last five games.

Three San Rafael (14-15)  pitchers combined to allow just three hits to the Sturgeon (19-11). Starter Alex McKinnon struck out three and allowed just one hit and a walk in four innings before Ryan Greco, who picked up the win, threw two more scoreless innings. Don Andre Clark then closed out the final inning.

Michael Theisen had the big hit of the day, a grand slam in the seventh to blow the game open. Dalys Binder also hit a home run and drove in a pair.