The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Astros home for big double-header

By Dick Sparrer

A summer trip to Yountville.

Well, it may not exactly be Hawai`i.

But as far as the Sunnyvale Astros are concerned, they'd rather spend the summer in Yountville than on Waikiki--at least, this summer.

Because Yountville is the site of the Joe DiMaggio division state tournament. And that's where the Astros hope to be when the tourney begins on July 22.

But there's some unfinished business that remains for the Sunnyvale club--namely, the rest of the regular season.

The Astros have three games left against Menlo Park, and a double-header against San Carlos set for July 20, 11 a.m., at the Homestead High School field.

Sunnyvale and San Carlos are currently locked in a first-place tie in the Southern Division of the Peninsula Joe DiMaggio League. To get to the state tourney, the Astros must either finish first in their division, or win a second-place playoff against the Northern Division runner-up.

That makes Sunday's twin-bill a big one.

The Astros, now 14-5 for the year, moved into the first-place tie with wins over Burlingame and South City.

Kayzell Milton ripped three hits and Brett Erickson, Antoine Watts and Steve Goldberg cracked two hits each for the Astros in a 7-3 win over Burlingame.

Sunnyvale had pulled out a tight 4-3 win over South City a day earlier.

South City jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Tony Plant came on in the second inning to throw four innings of scoreless relief.

The Astros took advantage of the opportunity, scoring a run in the fourth and three in the fifth to take the lead.

Art Wellersdick doubled home Gabe Duran for a run in the fourth, and the Astros picked up three more in the fifth on run-scoring singles by Erickson and Watts and a sacrifice fly by Art Alegria.

Lamar Harvey came on in relief of Plant in the sixth and picked up the save.

Erickson knocked in three runs and Harvey picked up the victory in relief in a 3-2 win over Pacifica a week earlier.

Plant was the winning pitcher and Nick Duran came on for the save in a 7-5 win over San Bruno in the second game of a double-header. The Astros had dropped the opener 6-0.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 16, 1997.
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