By DICK SPARRER
It won't be as hot in Palo Alto over the July 4th weekend as it was in Las Vegas the weekend before.
But the Cobras are hoping to get hot this week in time for the Fourth of July tournament July 4-7 at Palo Alto High School.
The Cobras, a Palomino Division (ages 17-18) club representing North County Pony Baseball, take an impressive 21-5 season record into the tournament following a 3-2 showing at a very hot Las Vegas Tournament.
Despite the hot conditions, the Cobras posted wins over Union City, Half Moon Bay and Redwood City, but lost to Casa Grande (Ariz.) and El Monte.
"By Friday, it started to warm up," Keoni Murphy of the Cobras said. "It got to 108°-- it was a blast furnace."
The Cobras will be happy to return to the cool Bay Area, but they're hoping continue their hot pace that led to an 18-2 record and .341 team batting average prior to the Las Vegas tourney.
Monta Vista stars Eddie Ishak, Chad Purcell, Shawn Hancock and Garrett Thee have been tearing things up for the Cobras this summer along with Matt Hall of Homestead.
Ishak leads the club with a .462 average, and Hall is hitting .455. Thee boasts a .405 average for the Cobras.
Purcell (.450) and Hancock (.405) are providing much of the club's power. Purcell has six doubles and three triples among his 18 hits and had knocked in 11 runs. Hancock leads the club with 18 runs-batted-in and has blasted four homers in his last two games before the Las Vegas trip.
Jeremiah Yacap is hitting .348 and has driven home 13 runs and Ishak and Hall have plated 12 runs apiece. Purcell leads the club with 22 runs scored and he's knocked home 11.
Ahmad Bhatti has just 19 at-bats, but he's belted three doubles and two homers to drive in 11 runs and is hitting .579 for the Cobras. Justin Stortz (Monta Vista) is hitting .471, but has just 17 at-bats.
Ishak, Jesse Soto (Fremont/San Jose City College) and Pat Lynch (Monta Vista) share the team lead with six stolen bases each.
Jeremy Cunningham (Monta Vista), Scott Rogers (Fremont/San Jose City College), Hancock and Brent McCann (Fremont) head up the mound corps for the Cobras.
Cunningham has fanned 30 and walked just eight in 29 innings of work on his way to a 5-0 pitching record. He boasts a low 2.17 earned run average.
Hancock has struck out 28 and walked 13 in 12-plus innings on the hill. His 2.13 ERA is best on the staff, and he has a 2-0 record with one save.
Rogers is 4-0 for the Cobras and McCann has a 3-0 record with one save. McCann and Thee each tossed complete game shutouts for the Cobras this summer.
Monta Vista's Brian Connelly, Seth Wagner and Nick Flood are other members of the squad along with Robert Ybarra.
The Cobras are currently 13-0 in league play and face a crucial game July 9 against their rivals, the Santa Clara Red Sox. The Cobras will visit the Red Sox for an 8 p.m. game at Washington Park in Santa Clara on July 9.
Prior to the league game, the Cobras will play July 4 (noon) against the Livermore Pirates, July 5 (9:30 a.m.) against the Peninsula Angels and July 6 (5 p.m.) against Morgan Hill in the Fourth of July Tournament at Palo Alto. The championship will be decided on July 7.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 3, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.