When Manteca Babe Ruth’s 15-year-old all-star team dropped into the losers bracket to play Hanford in the Babe Ruth All-Star Central California State Tournament in Dinuba, the fight and fire that propelled the savvy program to the state level just wasn’t there.

The ill effects of an 8-7 loss to Santa Maria the day before came back to strangle Manteca in an 11-3 loss to Hanford that ended Manteca’s season Sunday, July 26.

“I really feel like we could have won the whole thing if we had beat Santa Maria,” Manteca coach Tom McGregor said. “That loss really hit everybody hard, coaching, parents and kids included, because we all know we should have won that game.”

McGregor said Manteca committed 11 errors in the one-run loss, often giving Santa Maria extra outs in innings that slowly spelled Manteca’s doom.

Starter Zac Carillo did what he could to stop the bleeding, but the miscues, including nine errors on ground balls, were too much to overcome. Santa Maria scored seven unearned runs.

“It was one of the toughest pills I have ever had to swallow,” McGregor said. “If we would have made just eight errors instead of 11, we would have won that game.

“As hard as you try to boost morale and tell the kids it’s not over after a loss like that, you can just see the air come out of the kids and stay out.”

Manteca defeated Madera, 4-0, in the tournament opener. The Santa Maria loss set up a do-or-die matchup with Hanford, where a 3-2 Manteca lead broke apart in the fifth inning in a nine-run nightmare.

Manteca hit three batters, walked two and surrendered four hits in the fifth.

“The wheels just came off,” McGregor said. “We have a couple pitchers considered to be aces, but we don’t have a deep enough staff to get into the losers bracket and play every day. We needed to stay in the winners bracket.”

Brock Swift belted a two-run hit, and Anthony Louie knocked in Manteca’s last run and finished 2-for-2.