The Cupertino Courier

Sports

Cupertino American wins sr., jr. crowns

By Mike Barnhart

Repeating the success they achieved during Tournament of Champions play, Cupertino American Little League captured District 44 all-star championships in the senior and junior divisions. Meanwhile, Moreland claimed the district flag in the major division and Santa Clara Westside beat out Campbell for the 9-10 title.

As Briarwood-El Camino and Campbell squared off for District 44 11-year-old championship earlier this week, the curtain was dropping on the district's 2007 all-star baseball season.

More than 100 games were contested in a span of 18 days, boys and girls from Cupertino's four leagues competing in five age-group divisions with teams from Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, West San Jose, Campbell, Los Altos and Mountain View.

Unfortunately for the Cupertino American squads, they were eliminated in Section 5 play last weekend.

Sectional play for the three younger divisions is set for July 19-25.

Senior all-stars

After winning its first two games, Serra was in the driver's seat of the five-team tourney, but Cupertino American beat Serra in consecutive meetings to claim the D44 flag, July 10 at Farrell Field.

Pitcher Elliott Wagner-Rosales led American to a 3-2 triumph in the final game, outdueling Serra's tandem of Joey Whitworth and Daniel Willems. Wagner-Rosales tossed a complete-game 3-hitter, striking out three while allowing just three hits and three walks over seven innings.

Each team scored single runs in both the second and third innings, before pinch runner Robert Prada scored the decisive run scored in the top of the fourth. With two outs, a full count and the bags full, Kevin Reuter was hit by a pitch, forcing in Prada from third base.

Earlier, Tyler Anthony's two-out bloop hit to right field put Cupertino American on the scoreboard first, but Serra responded when Devan Ramsour walked, stole second and scored on a fielder's choice.

Wagner-Rosales scored on a passed ball in the third, putting CA ahead 2-1, but Paul Kamradt's lead-off home run in the bottom of the frame tied the game.

The evening before, Cupertino American scored nine runs in the first two innings and handed Serra its first loss of the tourney, 9-5. Reuter, Fred Sherburne and Zach Chastain all had RBI hits in CA's five-run first and Chastain clouted a three-run homer in the second.

Ramsour's two-run double in the first inning was Serra's biggest of its four hits off of winning pitcher Greg Wallis, who struck out five in 6 2/3 innings.

Serra reached the championship game by dumping Moreland 9-3 and edging Southern 5-4. Kyle Soutar's two hits and doubles by Nick Utley and Sean Gambill helped make Whitworth the winning pitcher against Southern.

Other Serra team members were Ryan Hu, Justin Matsuura, Craig Taubman, Zach Snyder, Kyle Lopez, Brennen Crawford and Ryan Harryman. The manager was Jeff Kamradt.

Other Cupertino American players were Ajay Arora, Ben Englander, Ken Orvick, Quinn Sullivan and Yoshi Takahashi. The manager was Chris Sullivan and the coaches were Jeff Englander and Steve Reuter.

Tri-Cities went 0-2, dropping games to Southern 4-1 and Moreland 9-4. Team members were manager Scott Green, Jonathan Cousins, Spencer Franks, Steven Grenier, Cole Levin, Dalton Lopes, Brandon Lum, Nick McGrath, Tyler Melen, Robby Puckett, Chris Pummel, Sachin Radhakrishnan, Matt Spillar and Derek Zhou.

Junior all-stars

Cupertino American beat out seven other teams for the district crown by winning four straight games, including an 8-3 triumph over Cupertino National in the finale.

Nathaniel Recine and Eric Queen combined for five hits and six RBIs to pace Cupertino American in the championship game. Queen drove in four runs with three singles, and Recine ripped a pair of hits, including a two-run double. Winning pitcher Billy Zamagni worked the first four innings, allowing just one run on five hits. He left the mound with a 7-1 lead.

Cupertino National scored first when Anthony Maldonado doubled home Nathan Burroughs in the top of the first. American came back with three runs, two on one of Queen's hits and another on Shohei Hirota's sacrifice fly.

A fine defensive play prevented National from scoring in the third. Kranti Peddada tried to score on Burroughs' second hit of the game, but was thrown out at the plate by center fielder Mark Fratus. Catcher Derek DeFrank's block of home plate kept Peddada from touching home.

Maldonado finished with two hits and he made a great running catch in center field. Burroughs and Ryan Winston also had two hits apiece for National.

Three days earlier, American advanced to the championship game by nipping National 5-4. Earlier, Cupertino American beat Los Altos 7-4 and blasted Moreland 13-2. Zamagni pitched all five innings against Moreland, posting 10 strikeouts and giving up only two hits and two walks.

American team members included manager Fred Zamagni, coaches Chris Hatton and Craig Morton, Connor Brunmeier, Joseph Malysz, Kyle Muscolo, Ryan Patton, Evan Short, Cory Snodgrass, Harrison Wang and Galen Wilson.

National finished with a 3-2 record, including routs of Mountain View, 11-0, Sunnyvale National 15-1 and Los Altos 12-3. Cody Alfred pitched a five-inning 1-hitter against Mountain View. Grant Manley, Desmond Maisel and Conner Criddle had two hits apiece against Los Altos.

Serra went 0-2, falling 5-2 to Moreland and 16-14 to Los Altos. Damon Wong rapped three hits against Los Altos.

Major all-stars

Moreland won five straight games to win the D44 championship, including a 14-2 triumph over Cupertino National, which finished with a 2-2 record and a share of fifth place with Sunnyvale Southern.

National won its first two games by one run, 9-8 over Los Altos and 2-1 over Mountain View, before bowing to Moreland and losing a rematch with Los Altos 8-3.

Sam McCann blasted a three-run homer and Jordan Sheade and Austin Burrow added solo shots in National's win over Los Altos. Closer Joey Shepard pitched well in the sixth inning.

McCann nearly hit for the cycle against Mountain View, lacking just a homer, and scored the winning run in the bottom of the sixth. Peter Stern pitched the first five innings, before Sheppard worked the sixth.

Cupertino American also won two games in the tourney, while Tri-Cities went 1-2 and Serra 0-2.

Both of American's losses were by one run, 3-2 to Metro and 6-5 to Southern in seven innings. Their wins also were close games, 7-5 over Sunnyvale National and 2-1 over Mountain View. Matt Crowley had three hits, including a triple, in the win over Sunnyvale National. Allen Tu had a pair of hits in both of CA's losses.

Tri-Cities captured its opener, scoring 10 times in the first inning, enroute to a 12-1 win over Sunnyvale National. Casey Cabrales pitched all four innings, before the game was called because of the 10-run rule. Cabrales and Pano Athens both rapped doubles in the win.

Cabrales paced T-C with three hits and two RBI during a 13-5 loss to Sunnyvale Metro. Youseph Pavlovic had two hits, including an RBI double, and Athens ripped a run-scoring double. Yuha Yamamoto singled and scored a run.

Serra's Kevin Convissar and Jeffrey Hardy belted back-to-back triples in the sixth inning of a 6-2 loss to Southern. Coinvissar also ripped a double in his team's 8-1 loss to Campbell.

11-year-old all-stars

Of the local teams, Cupertino National did the best, going 2-2 and tying Santa Clara Homestead for fifth place. Rosters and records of local teams follow.

Cupertino National (2-2): Daniel Lu, Brian Nordby, Luke Thompson, Daniel McGarry, Mathias McAfee, Bryant Tinajaro, Jackson Bartlett, Drew Granzella, Ian Young, Steven Karl, Brian Kerns.

Serra (0-2): manager Melvin Hirata, coach Scot Strotman, David Alvas, Bryan Engler, Isaac Hirata, Andrew James, Joel Kitchen, Ryan Ozawa, Trevor Price, Derek Rositas, Michael Todd, Zachary Tolentino, Ron Yeshoshua, Drew Strotman.

Cupertino American (1-2): manager Paul Anaya, coaches Steve Bonelli and Jim Day, Jacob Anaya, Julian Arndt, Andrew Bonelli, Connor Breuckman, Eric Day, Rebecca Hatton, Alan Hou, Jared Jacoby, Paul Johnson, Jason Larsh, Michael Lin, Kristina Okamoto, Chase Palumbo, Darragh Ruane.

9-10 all-stars

Serra finished 1-2, picking up a 4-3 decision over Mountain View. Preston Heen was the batting star in Serra's win. He belted an RBI triple and scored a run in the third inning, and he doubled and scored the winning run on Kent Perry's single in the bottom of the fifth.

Other team members were manager Jay Cena, Kazuki Aihara, Willliam Palmer, Lane Robinette, Andrew Weisner, Edric Wong, Jay Slaney, Brian Willems, Danny Takahashi, Justin Cena and Kieran Bradford.

Tri-Cities also went 1-2, earning a 10-8 triumph over Cupertino American. Richard Chung led T-C with three hits, while George Ku had two for CA.

Chung's Tri-Cities teammates were Tony Yanez, Benjamin Cousins, Riley Waite, Andrew Spillar, Robert Hou, Dhiraj Nallapothula, George Miller, Oscar Mukherjee, Hari Dhanushkodi, Payton Jones, Nathan Zadkovsky, Liam Har-El and Edan Har-El. The manager was Anthony Yanez, Steve Cousins and Matt Waite were coaches.

Ku's Cupertino American teammates were Neeraj Agrawal, Aaron Aquino, Nathanael Galvan, Trevor Lee, Bryan Malone, Connor McWard, James Nishijima, Yuki Nishimura, Warren Otoshi, Zachary Owens, Garrett Sasao, Anshul Shah and Alex Shin. The manager was Jonathan Owens and David Nishijima and Jim Malone were coaches.

Cupertino National had a tough draw, losing its opener 10-0 to eventual champion Westside, before dropping a tough 8-7 nod to Mountain View, which was among the final six teams. Kevin Nordby and Vitan Pande tagged RBI triples against Mountain View.

9-year-old all-stars

Cupertino National: manager Kent Squarcia, Andrew Ding, Dante Squarcia, Andy Garcia, Sam Nastari, Matt Li, Ryan Granzella, William Shih, Akshay Goyal, Phillip Wong, Austin Laffen, Kenji Kadokura, Gabe Adzich, T.J. Tarshis.

Tri-Cities: manager Bruce Domen, coach Jeff Oliver, Kyle Domen, Branden Oliver, Andrew Spillar, Justin Marks, James Athans, Rohan Pandit, Austin Compian, River Manochio, Hari Dhanushkodi, Neil Yuen.

Cupertino American: manager Paul Anaya, coaches Jeff Sasao and Jeff McWard, Dylan Anaya, Neeraj Agrawal, Connor McWard, Garrett Sasao, Lucas Nelson, Anshul Shah, Alex Shin, Brennan Powell, Trevor Lee, Austin Nguyen, James Wilhelmi, Greg Lerner.

8-year-old all-stars

Cupertino National: manager Dan Polcyn, coach Chuck Hammers, Tommaso Framba, Shyon Ghahghahi, Jared Slater, Joshua Huang, Matthew Hui, Marcus Harjono, Elliot Foad, David Kleiman, Ronan McGrath, Zachary Sanchez, Cole Hammers, Andrew Polcyn.

Cupertino American: manager Jonathan Owens, coaches Larry Chestnutt, Glenn Abeshima, Ben Calhoun and Dennis King, Jeffrey Abeshima, Trevor Aquino, Reece Breuckman, Jacob Calhoun, Eric Chew, Armin Hamadani, Jordan Hsu, Ryan King, Shayok Neogi, Jeremy Owens, Tim Sireci, Martin Thurman, Jeffrey Wallis. Hoffman flips 13-year-old Õstars to Pony win over San Jose PAL By Mike Barnhart Strong pitching by Troy Hoffman and a big fifth inning helped the Sunnyvale-Cupertino 13-year-old all-stars stay alive in a Pony Baseball sectional tournament recently. Hoffman pitched all seven innings, striking out seven batters and scattering six hits, to earn a 7-2 decision against San Jose PAL, July 1 at Los GatosÕ Hoyer Field. The win was a nice bounce-back game for Sunnyvale-Cupertino, which started the seven-team, double-elimination event with a bye, but suffered a second-round loss to Blossom Valley. SVCÕs decisive five-run fifth inning against San Jose PAL was sparked by Fabian BarronÕs infield single, which loaded the bases. Brian DuffyÕs walk drove in the first run of the rally and Cameron HeenÕs single drove in two more. Hoffman, Michael Bourey, Tyler Winter and Barron all scored during the rally. Alec Mertens paced the SVC offense, going 2 for 3 with a walk, while shortstop Brady Wood, right fielder Daniel Santos and third baseman Rusty Reed sparkled defensively. After beating San Jose, SVC lost its next game to eventual winner Santa Clara and finished with a 1-2 record.