The loss knocked Metro out of the double elimination tournament, but still left the 11- and 12-year-olds with much to smile about. Metro racked up three victories over Serra (1-0), Sunnyvale National (8-3) and Cupertino American (5-0) before departing as one of six teams left in the 14-team tournament.

"We had an excellent tournament," said Sunnyvale Metro manager Mike Marcellini. "The players battled in every game."

Metro displayed its ability to battle back several times in the high-scoring affair with Cupertino National. Metro found itself in an early hole after Cupertino's Justin Rahn knocked in Alex Wu with a two-run homer in the first, but the locals quickly responded with two runs of their own to tie it up.

Bryan Yang sparked the rally with a one-out walk. Sungsoo Kim then rocketed a double over the leftfielder's head to bring home Yang. With two outs, Alex Lavery blooped a single over first base to knock in Kim.

Cupertino added two runs in the third on a two-run single by Logan Lambert. Metro scored one in the third to make it 4-3 heading into the fourth inning, but it didn't stay that way for long. Nick Tong, Wu and Rahn delivered consecutive singles to load the bases for Cupertino. Chris Cantwell then stepped to the plate with two outs and hit a grand slam to right-center, making it 8-3.

Metro appeared unfazed as Andrew Ries lead off the bottom of the fourth with a double to right. Ries came home from third when Cupertino chose to throw out Andre Elizondo stealing second. Ryan Marcellini then cut the lead to 8-6 with a two-run single that scored Yang and Kim—both of whom reached base on walks.

The Cupertino hitters continued to stay hot, as Jay Voight and Wu delivered singles to set the stage for Rahn yet again. Rahn proceeded to blast a three-run homer that easily sailed beyond the centerfield wall. Cupertino added one more run to make it 12-6 when Dustin Brown doubled home Mitchell Plank.

Metro refused to fade away as they mounted their own rally in the bottom of the fifth. Kevin Kidwell reached base on an error and Yasuaki Nishimoto walked to spark the two-out rally. Shawn Smith then joined the home run parade with a three-run shot to straightaway center, making it 12-9.

In the end, Metro could only muster one run in the bottom of the sixth. Cupertino's Spencer Kimball struck out the final Metro batter with the bases loaded and the tying and winning runs on base.

Rahn (3 for 4, 5 RBIs), Cantwell (2 for 2, 4 RBIs), Wu (4 for 4, 3 runs scored), and Brown (2 for 2, 1 RBI) led Cupertino's offense. Shawn Smith's 2 for 4, 3 RBI performance highlighted the Metro attack.

"We tried to pick apart their defense and relied on being scrappy," said coach Marcellini, "but we couldn't manufacture more runs than they earned. Their hitting just overpowered us."

Such was not the case in Metro's previous game against Cupertino American on July 7. Metro's No. 3 starter Evan Whitehead limited the opposition to just three hits and no runs while striking out five for the complete game victory.

"Evan pitched a great game," said Marcellini. "His change-up was just killing them."

Metro scrounged up five runs on just four hits by using aggressive baserunning and timely hitting. They scored four runs on stolen bases or passed balls. Yang, Smith and Lavery accounted for all of Metro's hits.

Of course, the highlights of the game were not Metro's hitting, but rather their pitching and defense. Shortstop Yang and first baseman Lavery produced two 6-3 double plays to back Whitehead's efforts. Mike Appio also joined the highlight reel with an interesting 1-4-3 putout that ricocheted off Whitehead to him.

"We had excellent defense and made some beautiful double-plays," said Marcellini. "You don't usually see that happen in Little League."

Cupertino American almost made the 5-0 game much closer when they loaded the bases to start the sixth inning, prompting a visit to the mound from Marcellini.

"Evan said he let a couple pitches slip away," said Marcellini. "I had no intention of taking him out, so I told him to go finish them off."

Whitehead certainly listened to his skipper because he immediately blew two fastballs by the next batter. He then rung up the strikeout with a changeup and induced two ground ball outs to preserve the shutout.

Sunnyvale Southern's all-stars rattled off two victories to reach the quarterfinals of the winner's bracket. Southern disposed of Tri-Cities 20-0 and Sunnyvale Metro 8-6, before losing to Campbell and Los Altos.

Cupertino American pulled out an 8-5 win over Santa Clara Homestead before being ousted by Metro.


9/10-year-olds

It took two days to determine a winner between Sunnyvale Metro and Cupertino American in an elimination game in the loser's bracket. The July 8 game was suspended due to darkness with the score tied 9-9 after nine innings and didn't end until the next day when Metro scored three runs in the eleventh inning to win 12-9. Metro then defeated Cupertino American on 7-1 on July 10 to advance to the loser's bracket semi-finals.

Cupertino American defeated Mountain View 5-4 and Sunnyvale Southern 11-0 before being ousted from the tourney. Cupertino National also recorded two victories in the tournament: a 12-11 victory over Sunnyvale National and 10-0 victory over Tri-Cities.

In other local action, Sunnyvale Serra defeated Campbell 11-1 and Sunnyvale Southern 14-4 in the loser's bracket. Southern defeated Los Altos No. 2 9-8 before losing its next two games.


Senior division

Michael Mercado and Matt McCormick locked up in a real pitcher's duel, but it was Mercado winning out and leading Cupertino American to a 3-2 win over Tri-Cities in the first round of the district senior tournament.

Mercado's baserunning led to an American run in the first, but it was a triple by Jon Huizar that led to a run in the fourth that keyed the win for Cupertino.

Matt Ravadge doubled for Tri-Cities.

The key defensive play of the game came in the top of the fourth. Tri-Cities had scored a run to make it 2-1, but shortstop Mike Thurman barehanded a throw from second sacker Tim Maag to complete an inning-ending double-play to get American out of a jam.

In other action, Los Altos rolled 10-5 over Sunnyvale Southern. Shanir Ross doubled in the game for Southern.


Junior division

Brian Bedord and Shawn Voight ripped two hits apiece and Victor Thompson doubled to lead Cupertino National to a 13-5 win over Sunnyvale National in a loser's bracket game in junior division play.

Thompson was the winning pitcher, striking out three in three innings of work.

Michael Haruff, Anthony Angeles and Steven Alva had two hits each for Sunnyvale National and Ryan Reis and Alex Romanko each doubled.

In other junior action, Sunnyvale Serra beat Briarwood 14-6 and Los Altos topped Cupertino American 8-3.