Mike Wasserman?

That's right. The Los Gatos Town Councilman was on hand to help the young baseball players celebrate Little League Day, and he flipped a strike when called upon to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the 2003 season.

A former manager in the league, Wasserman lobbed one through the strike zone, but his effort wasn't nearly as impressive as the performances of Zavodnick and Hirschman in a game played later the same day.

The two hurlers combined for 14 strikeouts as they teamed to toss a one-hitter for the Braves in a lopsided 12-2 win over the A's.

Zavodnick flipped three no-hit, no-run innings, striking out eight in the process, before giving way to Hirschman for the final three. Hirschman was also impressive, striking out six and allowing just one hit—a sixth-inning double by Andrew Berg.

Kyle Johnson tripled twice and singled to lead the Braves with three hits. Zavodnick doubled and tripled in the win.

Kyle Weiss joined the strikeout parade. The A's hurler fanned six in two innings of work.

Later in the day Aguiar joined forces with Kevin Murphy and JoJo Pierce to toss a four-hitter for the Yankees in a 13-1 win over the Cubs. Aguiar went three innings in the win, Murphy tossed two and Pierce flipped one.

Aguiar was perfect at the plate for the Yanks, going 5 for 5 and scoring four runs. Murphy singled and doubled and Pat Impey had two hits.

Andy Furia had two hits for the Cubs.

In other Saturday action, the Tigers scored four runs in the fifth to battle back from a 4-2 deficit for a 6-4 win over the Indians. A single by Mike Mitchell and a two-run double by Billy Cardia were key hits in the game-winning rally.

Singles by Clayton Susick, Nathan Burke and Chris Bitter helped the Indians jump out to a 3-0 lead in the third. The Tribe had scored a run in the first on back-to-back singles by Burke and Bitter.

A two-run single by Matt Calhoun of the Tigers in the bottom of the third cut the lead to 3-2, but Burke ripped his third hit of the game in the fifth to knock in a run and give the Indians a 6-4 lead.

The Tigers rallied for four in the fifth, though, and Calhoun took over on the hill to shut down the Indians and pick up the save.

Earlier in the week, the Cubs lost twice—falling 6-5 to the Red Sox and 12-9 to the Yankees.

Gavin Honda's sacrifice fly in the fourth drove in the run that proved the game winner for the Yanks in their win over the Cubs.

The Cubs had seemingly broken the game open with eight runs in the second thanks to hits by Josh Senna, Spencer Havens, Jake Sullivan, Tyler Shultz and Tyler Olivet.

But singles by Pierce, Alex Silva and Sammy Garber helped the Yanks cut the lead to 9-7, then they rallied for four in the fourth to take the lead for good.

Silva and Murphy each singled and scored on a double by Impey to tie the game. Honda's sac fly drove in Impey for the go-ahead run.

Pierce, Silva and Aguiar had two hits each for the Yankees, and Senna and Olivet had two hits apiece for the Cubs.

Andrew Salazar came on in relief for the Yankees and threw three innings of one-hit baseball to shut down the Cubs.

Garvey tossed a complete game to lead the Red Sox to a 6-5 win over the Cubs to open the week.

The Sox won it in the sixth when Robbie Dunne raced home with the winning run on a double by Colin Chapman.

Singles by Porter Holcomb, Geoffrey Cleveland and Garvey had helped the Red Sox open up a 5-3 lead with a five-run rally in the third, but the Cubs tied it in the fourth on a two-run single by Jake Scullion.

The Cubs had taken the early lead with two runs in the first on run-scoring singles by Furia and Jake Cathey, then made it 3-0 in the third when Luke Politi doubled and scored on a single by Scullion. Politi and Scullion had two hits apiece in the game.

Games scheduled for April 23 and 24 were rained out.

Los Gatos Little League major division standings (as of April 26): Braves 9-0, Giants 6-2, Tigers 6-2, Yankees 6-3, Indians 5-3, Red Sox 5-3, A's 2-7, Cubs 2-8, Reds 1-6, Cardinals 0-8.


Little League Day

In addition to Wasserman throwing out the season's first pitch on Saturday, Little League Day activities included a welcome by league president Rob Dunne. He dedicated the day to the late John Baggerly, who worked tirelessly for the league throughout the years since its inception in the late 1950s.

The Los Gatos 2002 10-year-old all-stars were recognized for their District 12 championship and their winning pennant will fly at the field with the other Los Gatos Little League championship flags.

There were more than 700 Los Gatos Little Leaguers who participated in Saturday's event.