Saratoga News

The Saratoga Reds won the North County Pony League championship with an 18-6 record. Members of the team included (front row, l-r) Ian McAlister, Jon Goldman, Vito Vaiarello, Mike Reed, Todd Ziegler and Mike Chen, and (back row, l-r) coach Franz Vaiarello, Scott Elfving, Michael Bryan, Ryan Fletcher, Mark Elfving, coach Bill Elfving and manager Gary Hansen. Not pictured are Greg Van Hoesen, Adam Walter and Dave Lenske.

Saratoga Reds win Pony title

Fletcher, Ziegler provide the power

By Dick Sparrer

It's tough to catch a team that just won't lose.

And that was exactly the case this spring in the North County Pony League. The Saratoga Reds refused to lose down the final stretch and ended up winning the league championship.

The Reds rolled to victories in their last eight games to clinch the title by finishing two games ahead of their nearest rival. Saratoga finished the season with a solid 18-6 record.

The Reds were stuck in the middle of the pack in the North County circuit when their streak began.

"We had lost a couple of games in the middle of the season, and I think we were two games down," said Saratoga manager Gary Hansen.

The North County Angels were leading the division, "and it looked like there were going to win all the rest of their games," said Hansen. "We knew we had to win all the rest of our games [to have a shot at the title]."

The Angels stumbled, though. They lost once, then lost again to Saratoga. That 9-4 win helped the Reds clinch the league championship.

Ryan Fletcher and Todd Ziegler were the big sluggers for the Reds. Fletcher led the club with seven home runs and finished the year with a solid .500 batting average. Ziegler blasted four home runs for the champs and boasted a .520 average.

Greg Van Hoesen led the Reds with an impressive .521 average and Mark Elfving hit .506 to give Saratoga four players over the .500 mark.

M. Elfving, Fletcher, Ziegler and Scott Elfving shared the pitching chores for the champs.

The Reds averaged nearly 12 runs a game in their championship season and boasted a team batting average of .347. They gave up less than 3.5 runs a game. Iam McAlister, Mike Bryan, Mike Chen, Jon Goldman, Mike Reed, Adam Walter, Vito Vaiarello and Dave Lenske were other members of the championship squad. Lenske played just part of the year before a broken shoulder ended his season.

"These kids really worked hard on their skills and, despite several setbacks, they played superior ball when they had to," said Hansen. "Their hitting skills improved tremendously."

Saratoga won the title competing in a league with five teams from Cupertino and Sunnyvale, five more squads from Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, and two other clubs from Saratoga.

"We could not have asked for harder working kids or better sportsmanlike conduct to represent Saratoga," he added. "It was a great year."

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