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The Sunnyvale Southern Little League Yankees won the District 44 senior division Tournament of Champions crown.

Yankees win District 44 senior TOC

By Dick Sparrer

It was almost 6:30 p.m. before the Yankees and Rangers got their District 44 Tournament of Champions game under way.

But as far as the Yanks were concerned, it was well worth the wait.

The Yankees of the Sunnyvale Southern Little League knocked off the Rangers of the Cupertino National Little League 11-1 in the finals of the District 44 senior division TOC.

The clubs waited for almost an hour before officials could get the gates open at Santa Clara's Washington Park, but when the clubs finally took the field, the Yankees took over as quickly as the third inning.

Neal Cornell opened the third with a single, and before the Yanks were finished they had scored 10 runs in the frame.

Brandon Dougherty had two hits in the inning, including a three-run double to cap the rally. Cornell also had two hits in the third and Chris Kidd, Gary Mullins, Robbie Hoffman, Kevin Stichter and Shawn Watson each had hits.

A triple by Brad Dexter helped the Rangers get a run back in the home half of the third, but the Yanks matched that in the sixth when singles by Kidd, Mullins and Watson accounted the game's final run.

Pitchers Mike Caldwell of the Yanks and Daryl Griffin of the Rangers were locked in a scoreless tie through two innings before Sunnyvale unloaded in the third.

Caldwell went on to pick up the mound win, getting some solid relief help from Stichter.

The Yankees clinched the win in the sixth inning when Stichter battled through a scoreless frame. Cupertino needed a run to send the game to the seventh inning, and Steven Chuang opened the sixth with a single. But Stichter got the next three hitters, ending the game with a strike-out.

Infielders Hoffman, James Hayes and Dougherty and catcher Mullins were praised for their defensive work in the work in the title game.

It marked just the second TOC crown ever for the Sunnyvale Southern Little League. The first came in 1993 in the 9-10 age division, interestingly enough with Mullins behind the plate as the Southern catcher.

The Yankees got off to a strong start in the 1998 season with seven wins in their first eight games. But the club lost three of its next six decisions to slip to 10-4 for the year. The Yanks had to win their next four games to advance to the postseason, and they did, beating the Sunnyvale National White Sox 3-0, the Sunnyvale National Braves 16-8, the Los Altos Giants 8-4 and the Sunnyvale National White Sox again 7-2.

The four wins pushed the Southern Yanks (14-4) up against the Cupertino National Rangers (16-2) in the finals of the TOC.

Michael Wright and Mike Mullen were other members of the Yankee club that was managed by Jeff Mullins and coached by John Canavan and Mark Kidd.

Senior all-stars

Ajay Nagdev belted three hits and Chuang ripped a pair to lead the Cupertino National all-stars to a tight 6-5 win over Los Altos in the District 44 senior division championship game.

National had to fight its way through the loser's bracket to win the tournament championship. Cupertino opened the tourney with wins over Santa Clara Homestead (8-2) and Cupertino American (11-0) before losing to Los Altos (5-4).

National edged American 5-4 in the finals of the loser's bracket, then beat Los Altos twice (11-7 and 6-5) to claim the title.

Cupertino American had opened the tourney with a 3-0 win over Sunnyvale Southern before losing to National. American fought back to pound Sunnyvale National 19-9 and Tri-Cities 13-2 before losing to National a second time.

Sunnyvale National lost two straight to face elimination from the tournament, falling 15-13 to Los Altos before losing to Cupertino American.

Sunnyvale Southern was also out in two, losing 3-0 to Cupertino American and 4-3 to Homestead.

Eight members of the TOC championship Yanks were members of the Southern squad, including Caldwell, Dougherty, Kidd, Mullins, Hayes, Stichter, Hoffman and Watson. Bradley McGee, Kyle Severns, Matt Johnson, Matthew Whiteman, Michael Cannon and Paul Wellersdick were other members of the team coached by J. Mullins, M. Kidd and Canavan.

Junior all-stars

Sunnyvale National beat Moreland two straight to win the district junior division all-star championship.

National fought back from an 8-3 deficit with a six-run rally in the home half of the fifth to pull out the victory.

Bo Caravalho slapped a couple of hits and Troy Tulowitzki doubled and drove in three runs to lead National to the championship win. Robert Perry ripped a triple for the winners and Brett Bonetti knocked in two runs.

Tulowitzki was the winning pitcher, striking out six.

Perry was on the hill to pick up the mound win in the 9-6 win over Moreland a game earlier. Perry fanned six for National.

Perry and Tulowitzki each singled and doubled for the winners and Craig Maynard doubled.

Sunnyvale had opened the tourney with a 17-0 win over Cupertino American, then whipped Los Altos 5-1.

Jack Chapman, Vincent Gutierrez, Donyell Johnson, Nicholas Kossob, Jimmy Moore, Daniel Murrell, Paul Curtis Russell, Tyler Whinsup-Duran and Nicholas Delatorre were other members of the team coached by Leonard Perry, Danny Placencia and Ken Tulowitzki.

Sunnyvale Southern, meanwhile, opened with a 9-4 win over Tri-Cities before losing 10-0 to Moreland. Southern beat Cupertino American in the loser's bracket before falling 6-1 to Los Altos to drop out of the tourney.

Bryan Silverman and Brian McGee had two hits apiece and Gordon Ronco and Nick Carr each doubled, but Southern lost to Los Altos.

Adam Colombo, William Faules, Matthew Harper, Tyler Jordan, Tim Strombel, Daniel Sizemore, Keith McLaughlin, Brandon Espinosa, Eric Domke and Michael Madrigalli were other members of the team coached by Stan Silverman and Tim Strombel Sr.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, August 5, 1998.
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