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Los Gatos Pony race is tightening up
By Randy Frey
Parity is the word of the day in Los Gatos Pony baseball. With two weeks to go in the regular season, every team has at least four victories, and all but one team has at least five defeats. When the season-ending, double-elimination tournament begins on Monday, June 10, it will be a wide-open field.
The Indians continue to lead the pack with a 10-3 record despite losing two of their last four games. The Indians played just once last week, scoring six times in the fifth inning to break open a 1-0 game with a 7-0 victory.
Carlos Alonso picked up the win for the Indians, pitching five shutout innings. He allowed just one hit and struck out six. Matt Cisowski pitched the final two frames to pick up the save.
Danny Frey got the ball rolling for the Indians when he led off the bottom of the first with a triple to right-center field, scoring when the throw skipped away from the third baseman and rolled out of play.
The score remained 1-0 until the fifth, when Andrew Clark singled, and with two outs Cisowski, Alonso and Woody Wilkerson followed with consecutive doubles. Mitchell Benedetti then singled home a run, and Ben Hintz doubled home two more.
Robby Perry had two hits for the Yankees, and Thomas Bess added a single in the seventh.
The Mets and the Red Sox trail the Indians in second place, both with 6-5 records, and both play the Indians in the final weeks of the season. The Mets and Cubs were rained out last week, but the Red Sox won their fourth consecutive game with an 8-6 victory over the Cardinals.
The Cards led 4-2 going to the bottom of the fourth only to see the Red Sox score five times to take a 7-4 lead. The Cardinals scored two more in the sixth to climb within a run before the Sox added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth.
Zack Wicht singled and scored twice to pace the Red Sox attack, and Nate Dreesman singled twice and reached base all four times at the plate. Kevin Arroyo and Patrick McClain had two hits each for the Cardinals.
The Braves played a pair of games last week, opening with a 6-1 victory over the Orioles before closing out the week with a 6-4 loss to the Giants.
Justin Gladfelter was the winning pitcher in the opener, tossing four innings and giving up just one run on three hits. He struck out five. Gladfelter left with a 5-1 lead, and Michael Gault pitched three scoreless innings to pick up the save, striking out six.
Gault was also the hitting star for the Braves, picking up a double and two singles and scoring twice in the win. Gladfelter doubled and singled, and Will Kapp singled and scored twice. David Pavicich had two hits for the Orioles.
The week ended Friday night with the Giants' scoring two runs each in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings on route to a 6-3 win over the Braves. Kyle Blair tossed five innings for the Giants to pick up the win, yielding just one run while striking out five. David Martini tossed a complete game for the Braves.
The Braves got back-to-back doubles by Brian Roby and Martini in the bottom of the first to take a 1-0 lead. The Braves took a 2-0 led in the fourth when Frank Fritsch doubled and scored.
The score remained that way until the Giants Adam Wells singled in the second run of the inning in the top of the fifth as the Giants tied the game. But Gladfelter doubled and scored on a single by Chris Vertin in the bottom half of the inning to give the Braves a brief 3-2 lead.
In the sixth, Blair singled and Tim Sweeney was hit by a pitch, and both later scored to give the Giants a 4-3 lead. And in the seventh, Wells and Rusty Wall singled and both scored on a single by Sweeney to ice the victory.
Wells had two hits for the Giants, and Wall had a double and single. Roby had two doubles for the Braves, and Martini and Gladfelter both had doubles.
The games last Sunday and Monday were both postponed due to rain. But on Saturday, May 18, there were three games played before the weather turned ugly.
Steven Genetti tossed a complete game six-hitter as the Orioles beat the Giants 1-0. Genetti struck out four. Grant Kehrig walked and scored on a double by Mark Hasson for the game's lone run.
Earlier in the day, the White Sox scored three times in the fourth to beat the Cubs 4-1. Derek Thomas tossed three shutout innings for the Sox, who won their second consecutive game. Thomas struck out eight.
Thomas also had a two-run single to spark the three-run fourth inning. He singled earlier in the game. Marty Mullins had two hits for the Cubs, and Evan Boltan doubled.
In other action, the Cardinals scored five times in the second inning to upend the league-leading Indians 6-4. Thomas Watkins tossed the final three innings, limiting the Indians to just three singles while striking out three.
Danny Sullivan had a big two-run single in the second inning, followed by another two-run single by Kyle Jury. Sullivan finished with two hits on the day.
Hintz tripled for the Indians in the fourth and scored when Andrew Clark reached on an infield error. Hintz had two hits, Cisowski doubled and Alonso had two singles for the Indians.
The season was temporarily suspended over the Memorial Day weekend as Los Gatos Pony League sent three teams to various holiday tournaments. In openers Saturday, the 14-year-old tournament team buried Pleasanton 12-0 as Michael Gault homered and Steven Genetti tossed three shutout innings.
The 13-year-olds got a combined shutout from Matt Ellis and Raymond Salazar in their opener before dropping the second game of a double header to a 14-year-old team from Los Altos.
The combination 13-14 team battled hard against a very solid PAL 14-year-old team Friday night before losing 8-4. They then came back Saturday to face a powerful Santa Clara 14-year-old team and dropped an 11-1 decision.
The regular season will resume Tuesday, May 28, and conclude with two games Sunday, June 9. The season-ending double-elimination tournament will begin Monday, June 10, and run through June 26.
Los Gatos Pony League standings (as of May 25)-- Indians 10-3, Mets 6-5, Red Sox 6-5, Braves 7-6, Cubs 5-6, Giants 5-7, Cardinals 5-7, Orioles 5-7, White Sox 4-7.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
