Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Sunnyvale National wins Little League divisional in Los Gatos

By Dick Sparrer

Sunnyvale National isn't going to the Little League World Series... not yet, anyway.

But they're getting closer with every game.

The Sunnyvale National Little League major division all-stars got closer than any team from Northern California when they won the NorCal Division 1 tournament last weekend in Los Gatos to qualify for the Western Divisional tournament in San Bernadino this week. The Western Divisional champion qualifies for Williamsport.

Sunnyvale National has taken the first three steps toward reaching that goal. Sunnyvale won the District 44 and Section 5 titles before taking the divisional crown last Sunday with a thrilling 3-2 win over Visalia.

Robert Perry and Troy Tulowitzki led Sunnyvale to the exciting win over Visalia.

Tulowitzki singled and homered to drive in all three runs for the Nationals. He also was involved in a pair of double plays as the Sunnyvale shortstop.

Perry singled and tripled and scored two runs, along with tossing a six-hitter for the victory.

Perry was touched for a homer in the sixth to cut the score 3-2, but he settled down to retire the side and clinch the Sunnyvale win.

"Now they're going to the big dance," said Bob Bernhardt, a happy District 44 administrator, after the game. Bernhardt indicated that the last District 44 team to reach this level was Campbell Little League back in 1979. Campbell went on to the Little League World Series that year.

Sunnyvale National opens the Western Regional against the Washington state champion on Aug. 8.

Sunnyvale's victory capped a great two-week divisional tournament hosted by the Los Gatos Little League.

Visalia had beaten Sunnyvale 7-4 on Saturday to force the final game on Sunday.

Visalia jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the game, but National came fighting back on the strength of home runs by Perry and Tulowitzki.

Perry blasted a three-run homer in the fourth, and Tulowitzki followed with a solo shot to cut the Visalia lead to 6-4.

But Sunnyvale could get no closer and ended up losing 7-4.

"There have been some great games," said Randy Frey of the host Los Gatos Little League. "And there have been some real good ballplayers, guys who can hit."

And there were some thrilling games leading up to the Sunday finale.

Visalia, champs of Section 6, opened the tourney with an 8-3 win over Chico, then backed that up with an exciting 8-7 victory over Vacaville Central, the Section 1 champions. Visalia took an 8-4 lead into the bottom of the sixth, but Vacaville rallied for three runs to cut the lead to 8-7.

Newark, the champions of Section 3, knocked off Old Sacramento 9-1 in the first round, but lost to Sunnyvale National 3-1 a game later.

Newark battled back with a 9-1 victory to knock Section 2 champ Chico out of the tournament, and Vacaville rallied from behind to eliminate Section 4 champion Old Sacramento with a 10-7 win.

Vacaville was down 7-4 heading into the last of the sixth but rallied for six runs to win it. Vacaville had pulled to 7-6 when Nick Militano stepped to the plate with two outs and bases loaded. Militano crushed a grand slam to straightaway center field.

"It was way out of there," Frey said, adding that Militano "was the best hitter out there in terms of power."

Militano homered again a game later, but Vacaville lost a 5-4 heartbreaker to Newark to fall out of the tournament.

A night earlier, Sunnyvale National had dropped Visalia into the loser's bracket with a 5-3 victory. Robert Perry was the winning pitcher for Sunnyvale. The Nationals scored all five of their runs in one inning.

Perry, Tulowitzki and Rocky Russell are each returning all-stars for Sunnyvale who bat one-two-three in the National lineup.

A Friday night loser's bracket match-up between Visalia and Newark was the game Frey called the "best of them all."

Visalia pulled out a 6-5 win over Newark in nine innings to advance to the championship round against Sunnyvale National.

A solo homer by Sean McLain put Visalia up 5-4 in the fifth, but Newark tied it with a run in the sixth to send the game into extra innings.

Newark loaded the bases in the ninth but couldn't score. Visalia came back to load the bags in the bottom of the inning, and a two-out walk on a three-two pitch forced home the game winning run.

Dan Reeves was tagged with the tough loss despite throwing all nine innings for Newark.

"He was the biggest, hardest thrower in the tournament," Frey said of Reeves.

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