Crane was almost untouchable, yielding only one hit which didn't come until the fifth inning. He struck out four and walked four. Fanning was just as tough, turning in an excellent outing. He scattered three hits while sitting down 10 on strikeouts.

But when the final out was recorded, the scoreboard at the Lincoln Glen Little League field showed that Branham Hills had squeezed out a 1-0 win and earned the right to play for the district championship.

Crane issued one-out walks to Branden Perrin in the third inning and Fanning in the fourth, but in both cases the runners were left stranded. It happened again in the fifth when Henry Santero worked his way on with another one-out walk and Tyler Robitaille replaced him as a pinch runner. Ryan Sullivan followed with a base on balls of his own before Kurt Martin stepped up and punched a high bouncer down the third base line. It went over the third baseman's head and kicked up chalk on the foul line as it rolled into the outfield. Robitaille never slowed down as he raced home from second with the eventual winning run.

Although Los Gatos American managed to poke three hits, they did not come at the right time to cash in for runs. Cody Nez slapped a two-out single in the first inning and went to second on an error but was stranded. Andrew Berg punched a one-out hit in the second and tried to get into scoring position by attempting to steal second. He was cut down with a strong throw from catcher Michael Carroll to shortstop Nick Rossetta on a good defensive play.

Los Gatos American's best opportunity came in the third when Corey Lanagan ripped a lead-off double. However, he was left standing on second when Fanning bore down to strike out the next two batters and get the third hitter to ground weakly back to him for an easy putout to end the inning. Los Gatos never really mounted a threat after that with Fanning controlling things from his spot on the mound.

Although Los Gatos did not realize its hope of playing for the championship, the team of Crane, Mike Mitchell, Tim Garvey, Nez, Lanagan, Alex Moser, Berg, Ryan Martin, Mike Hodgman, John Cameron, Matt Calhoun and Roman Hayes had a fine run in the tourney. They won three and lost one in pool play before dropping the semifinal game to face elimination.

But elimination might have come a game earlier had manager Bill Martin not discovered a discrepancy in the tiebreaker system at the finish of pool play.

Los Gatos American, Willow Glen and Almaden North had tied for first place in their pool and went to the tiebreaker to determine which two teams would advance to the playoffs. Little League baseball's system allows for a formula based on runs allowed and defensive innings played to break such ties, and using such a formula Almaden North was named as the top team from the pool.

But the tournament director and District 12 representative used the same formula to break the tie for second, giving Willow Glen the nod to advance over Los Gatos. But Martin checked out the Little League rules to discover that the second-place tie in pool play was to be broken based on head-to-head competition, not by using the defensive equation. Los Gatos had beaten Willow Glen 4-3 in head-to-head play.

So at 2 p.m. on July 12, just hours before Willow Glen was to play in the major division semifinals, district officials gave the nod to Los Gatos. A disappointed Willow Glen squad was eliminated from the tournament, and Gatos would advance to a semifinal game postponed to Tuesday.

Gatos lost that one, the 1-0 heart.breaker to Branham Hills, and Branham went on to lose 6-0 to Lincoln Glen.