By Special to the Town Crier

The West Bay Titans won a Bay Area 18-and-under invitational tournament hosted by Hardtke World of Baseball Sept. 8 at San Jose Municipal Stadium.

The team of local 16-year-olds defeated host Hardtke, a team of 18-year-olds, in the championship game. The Titans beat club teams from San Jose, Los Gatos and San Leandro before the win over Hardtke.

Mountain View High’s Erik Davis struck out 16 batters in 10 innings of work and gave up only a run in the sixth inning of the championship game, ending his streak of 33 consecutive scoreless innings.

The Titans got clutch hitting throughout the tournament, including an early-round, game-tying home run by St. Francis’ Brady Fuerst vs. the San Jose Lightning. Fuerst’s shot sent the game into extra innings and the Titans eventually won it. St. Francis’ Richard Gorman homered in the win over Los Gatos and doubled to lead off the bottom of the seventh in the title game and eventually scored the winning run.

Mike Peterson (Los Altos) and Matt Long (St. Francis) provided key hits and defense throughout the tourney and Chris Coleman (St. Francis) provided solid relief pitching.