Saratoga News

Photograph by Christian del Rosario

The dust is flying at second base on this play in District 12 nine-year-old all-star action. As the dust clears, Saratoga has the baseball, but the Almaden runner is safe at second. Almaden pulled out an 11-10 victory.

Saratoga opens 'star tourney

9-year-olds fall, but then win big

By Dick Sparrer

The destination: Williamsport, Pa.

The passengers: The Saratoga Little League 12-year-old all-stars.

The departure: Wed., July 2, at the Union Little League field.

At least, that's the itinerary the Saratoga all-stars are hoping for as they take the first step in the process that they hope leads them to the Little League World Series next month.

Of course, it's a long road that only a select few teams will travel. And the trip there has to begin with a win in the district tournament.

Saratoga will begin that bid this Wednesday at the Union Little League, opening the District 12 tournament in a 5:30 p.m. game against Los Gatos.

Saratoga features a pitching staff that includes the top hurlers from the league's top two major division teams, the Cardinals and the Diamondbacks.

Eric Huang and Frank Wallace helped toss the Cards to the regular season championship in the division, and Brett Behnke and Brandon Orosz helped pitch the Diamondbacks to the crown in the league tournament.

The four top the all-star squad that also includes Chris Clock, Marc Crosby, Brett Granum, Gabe Garcia, Matt Lazares, Andy Swanson, Greg Van Hoesen and Buckley Wright.

The manager of the squad is Bill Wallace, and his coaches are Bruce Behnke and Shei-Rei Huang.

Wallace was the manager of the Cards, who posted a 12-3 record to win the regular season championship in the Saratoga major division.

The Cards won their first two games in the league tournament, but lost two straight to the Diamondbacks, managed by Behnke.

Orosz and Huang hooked up in a classic pitcher's duel in the tourney. The Diamondbacks ended up scoring a run in the top half of the sixth to win it 1-0.

Behnke outdueled Wallace in the final game to help the Diamondbacks clinch the tourney title.

"They beat us, but it was pretty exciting," said the Cards' manager. "Overall, we had a pretty good season."

The Saratoga 9-year-old all-stars, meanwhile, opened the District 12 tourney by dropping an 11-10 heartbreaker to Almaden before coming back to crush American 27-3.

Saratoga was to return to action on Monday night against Willow Glen.

Members of the Saratoga 9-year-old all-star team, managed by Dave Bayly, include Julia Anderson, Kevin Bayly, Eric Brenner, Eric Finnegan, Eric Geibel, Kevin Kaiser, Ryan Matsura, Scott Newberry, Jeff Roberts, Kevin Watkins, Matt Wright and Jim Kearney. The coaches are Steve Newberry and Dave Finnegan.

[ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ]