Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Los Gatos 10s win District 12 title

By Dick Sparrer

The Los Gatos 10-year-old Little League all-stars had to be beaten twice last week to surrender the District 12 tournament championship to Quito.

They weren't.

In fact, they weren't even beaten once.

Los Gatos cruised through the tourney unscathed to win the district crown and advance to the sectional tournament this week in Santa Clara.

Gatos rallied for five runs in the sixth inning to battle from a 3-2 deficit and pull out a 7-3 win over Quito in the championship game.

"They finally came alive in the sixth inning," said a happy Los Gatos manager, Dan Kropp, after the championship victory. "We dodged a lot of bullets in that game."

But the most important bullet of all for Los Gatos was a long double over the left fielder's head by Jake Schonig that was the big hit of that five-run rally in the sixth inning.

Los Gatos gave up a couple of unearned runs in the fourth and went into the sixth down 3-2.

Louis Santoro singled, and Justin Schaefer and Matt Perrone each walked to load the bases. Schonig then drove the first pitch he saw high over the left fielder's head to knock in all three runs.

But Gatos wasn't finished yet. Marty Mullins doubled home Schonig, took third on Rusty Wall's infield roller and scored on a single by David Pavicich.

That was all reliever Danny Sullivan needed. Sullivan struck out the first batter he faced in the bottom of the sixth. The next hitter singled but was quickly gunned down trying to steal by Schaefer, the Gatos catcher. The final hitter bounced out to second, and Los Gatos had clinched the District 12 championship.

Mullins was the starting pitcher for Los Gatos and worked out of three bases-loaded jams before giving way to Sullivan in the fourth. Mullins allowed an unearned run in the first and was trailing 1-0 when he left the mound.

Gatos took a 2-1 lead in the fourth. Pavicich singled, and Derek Thomas walked. They both ultimately scored when Schaefer reached on an error.

But Quito picked up two unearned runs of its own in the home half of the sixth and held a 3-2 lead into the sixth.

Mullins singled and doubled for Gatos, and Pavicich had two hits. Schonig came through with the clutch three-run double, Thomas singled and walked and Santoro singled.

The key defensive play of the game came in the first. Quito had a runner on and no outs when Pavicich hauled in a fly ball in right and threw behind the runner at first for a double play. Quito went on to load the bags and score a run before Mullins worked out of the jam.

Forrest Gallien, A.J. Comeau, Trevor Campbell and Danny Frey are other members of the Los Gatos 10-year-old all-star team that will now move on to the sectional tournament.

Los Gatos is scheduled to open the tourney against District 9 (Salinas-Hollister area) on July 25, 2 p.m., at the Santa Clara Briarwood-El Camino Little League field (Fordham and Cabrillo avenues in Santa Clara).

[ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ]