Saratoga News
Sports
Saratoga wins 9-year-old title, 10s, 11s advance to semifinals
By Kevin Sparrer
Saratoga is proving its worth. Three different all-star teams from the Saratoga Little League have advanced to the semi-final rounds of the District 12 tournaments, and one has finished tourney play as a champion.
The Saratoga 9-year-old all-stars won the district crown by defeating Almaden South 5-1 on July 3 after winning over Branham Hills 14-6 on July 2 in the semi-final round of the tournament.
The members of the Saratoga 9-year-old all-star team include Austin Bakke, Ryan Casini, Justin Douglass, Vincent Faylor, Nathon Fotedar, Billy Inserra, Kyle MacCauley, Logan MacDonell, Tyler Morales, Paris Muise, Andrew Singer and Billy Vithanage.
The 10-year-old all-stars have made their way into the semi-final round of the tournament held at both the Los Gatos and Almaden Little League fields. So far in the tournament, Saratoga has been unbeatable. On July 7 Saratoga defeated Los Gatos American 9-5 to seal its place in the semi-final round. Saratoga downed Cambrian Park 10-0 on July 5 after a 14-0 win over Quito on June 30. The first game of the tournament pitted Saratoga against Los Gatos National with Saratoga coming out on top 12-7.
Saratoga was to face Lincoln Glen on July 9 in the semifinals of the tournament. With a win in that game, Saratoga would continue on to face either Branham Hills or Almaden South in the championship game on July 11 at Los Gatos at 5:30 p.m.
The 10-year-old team consists of Andrew Carter, Andrew Chen, Andrew Ferguson, Adrian Fong, Alex Hansen, Andrew Harter, Jonathan Keyes, Drew Kriens, Joey Medeiros, Chris Palermo, Tyler Plesse and Derek Sun.
The Saratoga 11-year-old all-stars have also played their way into the semifinals of the district tourney after a win over Quito 13-2 on July 7.
Saratoga also defeated San Jose American 10-1 on July 3 with an impressive offensive showing. Ryan Johnson belted a homer, a double and a single and scored a run. Travis Berryhill ripped a pair of doubles, a single and scored twice; Brayden Curry singled twice and scored a run; Eric Ferguson, Stephen Ruff, Christian Galvin and Bobby Vithanage each singled and scored; and Thomas Alexander, K.J. Carta Samuels and Anthony Callado each scored.
On June 30 Saratoga downed Los Gatos American 5-4 with Johnson blasting another homer, a single and scoring twice. Chris Zapata also ripped a home run and scored. Ruff had two hits and scored twice, Vithanage doubled and Anthony Collado singled.
Ruff ripped a homer, a single and scored twice in Saratoga's win over Lincoln Glen 5-1 on June 29. Berryhill doubled, singled and scored, Samuels had two hits, Vithanage doubled, Zapata and Curry each singled and scored and both Johnson and Galvin singled.
The semifinal game was held on July 9 against Los Gatos National and the championship game will take place on July 10 at Cambrian Park at 5:30 p.m.
The rest of the roster for the 11-year-old all-stars includes Jared Spang and Travis Stokes.
The major division all-stars dropped their first game of the tournament 1-0 to Almaden North on July 6. It also faced Almaden South on July 7 and will continue on to play Los Gatos American on July 12 at 5:30 p.m. at Union and then face Willow Glen on July at 12:30 p.m.
The players on the major all-star team are Stevie Berman, Roy Bisht, Kyle Dozier, David Eng, Zach Hansen, Michael Lauck, Robbie Parden, Kushal Raj, Kyle Roter, Matt Round, Cameron Schmelzer and Matt Wong.
