Saratoga News

Sports

Quito's Zucca cracks 3 hits in 9-6 win over Willow Glen

By Kevin Sparrer

They say that good pitching beats good hitting, but not when the batter is Dominic Zucca of the Quito Little League.

Zucca refused to get out on July 13 when Quito battled Willow Glen in the District 12 major division all-star tournament held at the Union field. Zucca stepped up to the plate four times, ripped three hits, including a double, and was walked once. Zucca also drove in a run and scored three times in Quito's 9-6 win.

The lead was extremely fragile early on in the game with Quito leading 4-0 after two innings, but Willow Glen fought back to score four runs in the top of the third to tie the game. Quito wouldn't stay dormant, however, and rallied for another five runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Zucca led off the inning with a line drive single to left before the second batter struck out. With one out, Ryan Hoeger singled up the middle, leaving runners at first and second. Both advanced on a wild pitch before Luke Ferguson grounded out to short, driving home Zucca with Hoeger going to third.

Joe Nieto, Ryan Saul and Michael Lima each walked to push home Hoeger. With the bases still loaded, Arjay Parhar singled down the third base line to score Nieto, then Yamato Villasenor singled to right to knock in Saul. Zucca walked to score Lima before Willow Glen was able to get the last out of the inning.

Hoeger was the other big bat for Quito, knocking a pair of singles and scoring a run. Ferguson doubled and drove in one, Lima and Jacob Sisneros each singled, had RBIs and scored, Villasenor and Parhar each singled and drove in runs and Nikhil Patel, Saul and Nieto each singled and scored.

The win left Quito 1-2 in the tournament with only one more game in play against Almaden South. Quito had fallen to Los Gatos American 9-6 on July 10 with Nieto blasting a grand slam in the loss. The first game of the tournament for Quito was a loss to Almaden North 10-0 on July 7.

The semifinal round of the tournament was to be held on July 16 with the top teams from each pool facing the No. 2 teams from the opposing pool. The winners of the two games will meet on July 17 at the Union Little League field to see which team will advance to the next tournament.

Saratoga opened the tournament with a one in three games in pool play. Saratoga knocked off Los Gatos American 6-2 on July 12, but the locals had lost 1-0 to Almaden North on July 6 and 4-0 to Almaden South on July 7.