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Back in June, when Sunnyvale National Little League announced the members of its 1112 age division girls softball all-star team, one of the coaches declared a lofty goal.
"Our goal is to make it to the Little League World Series in Portland, Ore.," announced Michael Arevalo. "We have a great shot at making it."
Sunnyvale National easily cleared the first of four post-season hurdles recently, posting three wins en route to the District 44 championship. All three games were shortened to four innings because of the 10-run mercy rule. Twice the opponent was Cupertino American, including the championship game.
"They are at another level," marveled CA coach Chris Marlowe after his team bowed 11-1 in the finale. "Their pitching should take them far."
National's pitching is so strong, that manager Mike DeSilva did not use one of his best pitchers, Corina Rios, until the final two innings of the championship game. She closed the game out in splendid fashion, striking out five batters and not allowing a hit.
CA was just happy to score, after losing 22-0 to National in the opener. In the elimination bracket, CA outlasted Sunnyvale Southern 26-25 and beat Sunnyvale Metro 12-6 to gain a rematch with National. Meanwhile, National reached the final by whipping Metro 25-1. All three National wins were one-hitters.
"We scored one run off of one of their pitchers we had been facing during the season," Marlowe explained. "Then they brought in a girl we hadn't faced (Rios), and she was great."
Taylor DeSilva pitched the first two innings of the district title game before Rios took over. Jessica Lopez pitched a shutout in the opener, and Celine Kealiihnohumoku had seven strikeouts against Southern.
Kealiihnohumoku paced the National offense during the three games, banging out 11 hits in 11 at-bats. DeSilva was 6-for-7 with four walks. Christina Meneses, who had four hits in the first game, finished the tourney with six. Jessica Perez made a good showing coming off the bench, getting on base four out of five times.
Chrissy Montez, Nicole Arevalo, Christine Lozano and Lopez all had multi-hit games during the District 44 event.
Metro's all-stars, who were led by manager Tony Phillips and coach Craig Morris, included Rennea Phillips, Kelsey Easop, Kelly Duffy, Melissa Morris, Vivian Reed, Kristina Luotto, Alexis Raisch, Kristine Wright, Allison Davis, Stephanie Schneider, Rebecca Bliss, Reanna Reyes and Brittany Mahoney.
Members of Southern's all-star roster were Kristina Alford, Colleen Aubrey, Elena Clark, Abby Dugan, Morgan Farabaugh, Kelli Fredrickson, Megan Gilbert, Nichole Haight, Ashley Lauborough, Emily Liang, Christine Nichols, Mariah Ramirez, Alex Viveiros and Danielle Coomes. Keith Viveiros was the manager.
Southern's junior all-stars (ages 1314) were managed by Dave Werling. The team consisted of Elena Beges, Karen Clark, Olivia Hartoon, Kathleen Lynch, Jamie Mangan, Katie Sanders, Julie Spencer, Kelly Vogt, Alexa Wallin and Kristen Werling
Metro's junior roster included Jill Anderson, Nikki Burchell, Samantha Ellis, Jessica Emerson, Samantha Jennings, KaNeesha Johnson, Niki McDowell, Katie O'Brien, Yuri Okamura, Krista Pruitt and Kelly Shaver.
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