The Cupertino Courier
Sports
Burrow celebrates birthday with win
By Mike Barnhart
Happy birthday, Austin Burrow!
The hard-throwing, hard-hitting leader of the Cupertino National Little League Giants celebrated on his special day, June 20, during a first-round victory in the District 44 Major Tournament of Champions.
Burrow, one of six Giants getting a second chance at the TOC after a first-round loss in 2006, was the pitching and batting star in the CNLL champions' 5-0 shutout of Campbell's TGFS at Earl Carmichael Park in Santa Clara.
The talented right-hander offered no party favors, whiffing 17 batters and allowing only two hits. At the plate, he blasted a two-run home run in the first inning and spanked a two-run single in the second.
Burrow and the Giants continued the TOC party two days later, stopping the Cupertino American Dodgers 5-2 at Mountain View's McKelvey Ballpark, and moving into the semifinals of the 14-team, single-elimination event.
Burrow socked an RBI double and a solo home run against the Dodgers, supporting a strong effort by winning pitcher Peter Stern. Burrow's double in the top of the first chased home Jordan Sheade for a 1-0 lead. Sheade had reached second when his leadoff looper landed just inside the right field line.
National added to its lead in the third inning, rallying after American starting pitcher Austin Brady retired the first two batters.
Shortstop Daniel Lu singled, moved to second when Burrow walked and scored on a base hit by Stern. Burrow then scored on Jake Lee's single past shortstop, making it 3-0.
Dodger shortstop Matt Crowley, who had combined with second baseman Tim Wallis on a nifty inning-ending double play in the second, put his team on the scoreboard in the last of the fourth. He singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Marshall Varney's screaming double down the right field line.
After a pop out, Varney reached third on Dustin DeFrank's line drive off of the second baseman's glove, but Stern ended the threat with two strikeouts in a row.
The Giants extended the lead to 5-1 with Burrow's round-tripper in the fifth and Sheade's slide into home after a wild pitch in the sixth.
Stern worked out of jams in four of the five innings he worked, catching batters off balance with a sneaky, off-speed curveball. He struck out six batters, before switching positions with Lu after giving up a leadoff double to Brady in the bottom of the sixth. Brady scored the Dodgers' final run, racing home on DeFrank's third hit of the game. Lu settled down to close the game for the Giants with two strikeouts and a ground out.
Kevin Tu, who played third base, pitcher and shortstop during the game, added two hits for the Dodgers. Tu was one of seven 12-year-olds in the line-up for the Dodgers, who went 15-3 and claimed their second Cupertino American title in a row. Tu, DeFrank, Wallis, Brady, Crowley, Varney and Naveed Chowhury all returned this year as TOC veterans. Newcomers to manager Ken Wallis' Dodgers were Jacob Anaya, Patrick Fredrick, Rebecca Hatton, Jason Larsh and Michael Lin. Coaches were Vince DeFrank and Dave Crowley.
The Giants, repeat champions for Cupertino National, finished with 10 hits against the Dodgers, including three by Lee and two apiece by Burrow and third baseman Harsha Nukala. Lee, Burrow, Nukala, Stern, Sheade and Lu all were veterans on manager Brad Burrow's Giants. Newcomers were Edmund Nelson, Omar Naguib, Jed Drexler, Aditya Nag, Tyler Fabro and Andrew Hua. Coaches were James Lu and Ahmed Naguib.
The Giants were hoping to return to Mountain View for the championship game on June 26, but first they had to get past the Giants of Santa Clara Westside, who did not allow a run in their first two games.
Westside pitching ace Dakota Goularte was brilliant on the mound. After working three hitless innings in a 12-0 romp against the Sunnyvale National Giants, he dazzled the Sunnyvale Metro A's with a 4-0, complete-game no-hitter. Goularte struck out 12 batters and allowed just two base runners, while Nicholas Molina threw blanks in four of his five innings of work for the A's.
Westside scored all of its runs in the bottom of the third, mixing five hits and two Metro errors.
The survivor of the battle of the Giants advanced to the championship game on June 26 against either the Moreland Diamondbacks or the Santa Clara-Homestead Yankees.
The Diamondbacks reached the semifinals by outslugging the Mountain View Marlins 13-8 and the Los Altos Nationals 11-6. The Yankees advanced with victories over the Sunnyvale Southern Mets 4-3 and the Briarwood-El Camino White Sox 5-3.
The Yankees needed a two-run rally in the last of the fifth to overtake the Southern Mets. Nikko Hill of the Mets pitched 4 1/3 innings of hitless ball, striking out eight, and he had two hits, including a run-scoring double. Prudvi Gadiraju added a two-run single for the Mets.
Serra, Tri-Cities fall
The Serra A's lost their tourney opener, 4-2 to the Cupertino American Dodgers.
The A's never led in the game, but kept the game close with solo runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Pablo Lozano doubled home Ross Slaney in the fourth, and Slaney doubled home Kevin Barbano in the fifth. Jeffrey Hardy struck out eight Dodgers while pitching in relief for the A's. Slaney and Hardy both had two hits.
The Serra champion's final record was 19-6. After going 15-4 in the regular season, the A's reached the TOC by winning four straight league playoff games after losing their first one.
A three-run sixth inning broke up a tie, as the A's beat the Mets 8-5 in the Serra championship game on June 16. Joel Kitchen singled home the go-ahead run and Lozano followed with a two-run hit in the decisive sixth. Sharing the pitching duties, Lozano and Hardy combined for 13 strikeouts.
The decisive game was set up two days earlier, when pitchers Casey Douglas and Hardy teamed up for an 11-strikeout performance that helped secure a 4-3 win over the Mets.
Other members of manager Rex Hardy's A's were Austin Browning, Marcus Lee, Ryan Ozawa, Justin Shayestah, Max Sloan and Zachary Tolentino. Coaches were Larry Barbano and Dale Ozawa.
Despite a fine pitching effort by Casey Cabrales, the Tri-Cities Giants lost its TOC opener 2-0 to the Los Altos Nationals.
Cabrales' teammates included Dylan Lum, Alex Nishiguchi, Adit Dhanushkodi, Yuya Yamamoto, Shumei Fukawa, Jesse Zhou, Thomas Coder, Matthew Workman, Max Dunn and Harrison Farnum. The manager was Albert Lum.
