The Cupertino Courier
Sports
Zamagni tosses Cards to win in TOC final
By Mike Barnhart
A six-run third inning proved to be more than enough support for pitcher Billy Zamagni of the Cupertino American Cardinals in the championship game of the District 44 junior division Tournament of Champions.
Zamagni, a confident right-hander, was able to tame the bats of the Cupertino National Twins and lead the Cardinals to a 10-2 triumph under the lights at Mountain View's McKelvey Ball Park last Wednesday night.
The Cardinals, the top seed in the eight-team TOC after losing just two of 20 games in the regular season, finished with a 21-2 record. The Twins, the No. 2 seed in the single-elimination tournament, finished with an overall record of 16-5.
Zamagni cleverly mixed a hard fastball with a slow curve for 6 1/3 innings, striking out nine, including two to escape a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning. He also stranded a runner in scoring position in the fourth and sixth innings, getting the third out each time on a called third strike.
Zamagni reached his pitch allotment with one out in the sixth, leaving the mound with one out and the bases loaded. Nathaniel Recine took over and retired the next two National batters to close out the game.
Recine, who split time at the middle infield posts before finishing on the mound, helped the Cardinals take a 2-0 lead in the first. After Zamagni led off with a walk, stole second and moved to third on Kip Lund's sacrifice bunt, Recine drilled an RBI double to left-center. Recine later scored on an infield error.
The Cards strung together five of their seven hits in the decisive third inning. After Steve Hatton's lead-off walk and an out, catcher Derek DeFrank and first baseman Eric Queen ripped back-to-back RBI doubles. Center fielder Shohei Hirota, third baseman Connor Brunmeier and left fielder Alex Otoshi followed with run-scoring base hits.
Other Cardinal team members were Camron Hamadani, Tyler Sullivan, Harrison Wang and Galen Wilson. Manager Fred Zamagni was assisted by coaches Chris Hatton and Craig Morton.
Six of the Twins' seven hits came from the first three batters in their line-up. Grant Manley, Ryan Winston and Nathan Burroughs each had two singles. Aaron Ho also had a base hit for the Twins.
The Cardinals reached the title game with wins by beating the Cupertino American Red Sox 10-0 and the Cupertino National Rangers 9-7. Queen pitched a 2-hitter, while Zamagni (four RBIs) and DeFrank (two hits) paced the Cardinals' offense, in the first round against the Red Sox.
The Twins whipped the Los Altos Cardinals 12-7 before edging the Los Altos Giants 4-3 in a semi-final game. Manley (three hits) and Burroughs (two RBI) helped earn the victory for starting pitcher John Geary, who scattered three hits over five innings.
Los Altos Giants hurler Keegan Kliman had a shut out and no-hitter for five innings before the Twins broke loose for all four of their runs. Cody Alfred (five innings) and Winston both pitched well for the Twins, allowing just single runs in the second, third and sixth.
Other contributors this season for the Twins were catcher Paul Martinez, Jack Orvick, Jack Faraday and Kyle Gerner. Bruce Winston was the manager and Bud Alford and Mak Manley were the coaches.
Despite solid pitching from starter Alex Chapman and Mathew Hopkins, the Serra Mets dropped a tough 6-4, eight-inning decision to the Los Altos Giants in the first round.
The Mets, the sixth seed in the eight-team tourney, finished the regular season in sixth place out of 14 District 44 junior clubs. After the TOC loss, the Mets' final record was 10-9-1.
Other members of the Mets were David Bauer, Gautum Chandiok, Brad Crane, Brandon Erickson, Zachary James, Mark Jones, Matt Kelley, Sebastian Lee, Jimmy Roslund, Kapil Talwalker and Damon Wong. The manager was Jim Roslund, Sr.
Senior TOC
Greg Wallis and Quinn Sullivan combined on a 3-hitter as the Cupertino American Giants defeated the Serra Reds 4-3 to claim the District 44 senior division championship on June 28 at Santa Clara University's Schott Stadium.
After a 15-game, five-week schedule following the local high school season, the Reds (12-3) and Giants (10-5) finished as the top two of six senior division teams (ages 15-16), earning berths in the district title game.
Wallis' fifth-inning double drove in Kevin Reuter with what proved to be the decisive run. Wallis had three of the Giants' eight hits, while Reuter and Ajay Arora had two each.
The Giants broke a 1-1 tie with two runs in the top of the third. Elliott Wagner-Rosales' bunt single started the inning and Reuter's double put runners on second and third. Yoshi Takahashi's squeeze bunt and Sullivan's sacrifice fly plated the runs.
Daniel Willems pulled the Reds a little closer with a single and a run in the fifth. An inning later, teammate Bryan Hu rapped a base hit and came around to score on an infield grounder hit by Kyle Soutar. Serra's threat was squelched when Giants catcher Tyler Anthony threw out Soutar attempting to steal third.
Paul Kamradt provided Serra with another chance to tie when he belted a two-out double in the last of the seventh. Sullivan was able to get the final out, though, to preserve the win and the District flag for the Giants.
Minor TOC
Santa Clara Westside's Mets defeated the Moreland Red Sox 11-7 for the championship.
The Cupertino National Giants, who lost to Moreland in the semi-final round, followed up a first-round bye with a 23-6 pasting of the Los Altos Yankees. Sam Nastari, Andrew Ding and Xavier Nurse provided the offensive firepower, combining for seven hits. The Yankees scored all of their runs in the first two innings, before Giants pitchers Ding and Andy Garcia closed with three scoreless innings.
Other members of the CN Giants were Dante Squarcia, Mike Thomas, Matt Li, Brent Mogensen, Thomas Haensel, Jimmy Li, Divek Toprani and Chirag Toprani.
Three other local champions--the Serra Reds, Tri-Cities Giants and Cupertino American Yankees--did not survive the first round, although the Reds, behind starting pitcher Brian Willems, held a one-run lead into the fifth inning before falling to the Los Altos champion.
Joining Willems on manager Jay Cena's Reds were Justin Cena, Garrett Crawford, Nicholas Hargis, Itai Intrater, Ashwin Iyer, Jehan Keval, Daniel Marquez, Ryan Norris, Ian Pearman, Ilias Tostado and Lucas Yan. Coaches were Zachary Hargis, Lisa Norris, A.J. Keval and Steve Crawford.
Team members of the Tri-Cities Giants were Tony Yanez, Brent Smith, Bryan Smith, Surya Pratim-Mukherjee, Caleb Disney, Klaus Park, Richard Chung, Jason Silveira, Johnny Schmidt, Tyler Mardesich, Guy Bokobza, Justin Marks and manager Anthony Yanez.
Team members of the Cupertino American Yankees were Rahul Iyer, Greg Lerner, Kent Moore, Shayok Neogi, Austin Nguyen, James Nishijima, Warren Otoshi, Mack Palumbo, Sahil Patel, Anudeep Vedagiri, Jeffrey Wallis, James Wilhelmi, manager David Nishijima and coaches Jason Otoshi and Dan Wilhelmi.
Major TOC
The Cupertino National Giants, paced by 4 1/3 scoreless innings from pitcher Peter Stern and two solo home runs from second baseman Jordan Sheade, were five outs away from the District 44 major division championship.
The Moreland Diamondbacks, though, did not give up.
Instead, the Diamondbacks used homers of their own in the fifth--a two-run shot by Sean Downey followed by a solo bomb by Spencer Deale--to tie and another big fly by Deale in the sixth to claim the title, 5-3.
Omar Naguib singled for the Giants in the bottom of the sixth, but he was stranded as Downey notched three of his nine strikeouts to close out the game.
The Giants reached the finale by dumping the Westside Giants 4-2. Austin Burrow struck out 10 Westside batters in 5 1/3 innings and slugged a home run to pace the win.
