The Sunnyvale Sun

Sports

National goes 3-2 in 9-10 all-star play

By MIKE BARNHART

It happens every summer. Teams lose games during the first week of District 44 Little League baseball all-star competition and then must play Little League Survivor in week two. Almost daily and often in scorching heat, teams in the consolation bracket must fight tooth and nail against opponents in the same predicament.

The sooner the first loss comes, the longer the road to the championship game becomes. All along they hope they have enough energy and pitching remaining to stave off a second loss and elimination from the 14-team field. Such was the case this season for the 9-10 all-stars of Sunnyvale National.

After dropping a tough one-run decision in its opener against Mountain View, National survived for three straight games. But in its fifth game over a seven-day stretch, National once again banged into Mountain View and lost 6-1.

It was a fun ride, though, for the National's 'stars, finishing among the final six teams with a 3-2 record. They recovered from the 7-6 opening loss by rolling past Cupertino American 12-1, edging Tri-Cities 4-3 in 90-degree heat and rallying in the last inning to knock off Moreland 9-5.

A six-run second inning, featuring doubles by Michael Angulo and Abraham Arias, keyed the romp against Cupertino American. Tony Montano led the hit parade with three hits and three runs. Ridge Fernandez had two hits and three RBIs, and Matt Collins had two hits. Logan Nowlin scored three times, to go with a hit and sacrifice fly, and Quenton LaChance knocked in two runs with a pair of hits.

Against Moreland, National scored six times after two outs in the top of the sixth. A triple by Kristian Ramirez and doubles by Nowlin and Montano highlighted the rally. Earlier, Fernandez had clubbed a two-run homer. Other team members were Brandon Camargo, Kenny Fisher, Eli Sebastian and Nick DelRosario.

Sunnyvale Southern finished with a 1-2 record, while Sunnyvale Serra and Sunnyvale Metro went 0-2. Southern's win, a 14-7 decision over Serra, featured three hits by Trevor Dos Santos and two apiece by teammates Tyler Miller, Jon Hamada and Blake Billiet. Other Southern team members were Taiki Maeda, Niko Cepeda, Aaron Johnson, Steven Canalez, Joe Alonso, Henry Greco, Tyler Pineda and Clayton Davis.

Serra's stars included David Almas, Justin Cena, Bryce Clark, Paige Crowley, Casey Douglas, Bryan Erickson, Isaac Hirata, Joel Kitchen, Justin Lyon, Justin Shayesteh, Justin Shiah, Drew Strotman and Michael Todd.

Metro's team included Animesh Agrewal, Humza Babar, Taha Babar, Thomas Ball, Alex Bernauer, Maximo Brogley, Justin Chen, Bryce Farrell, Cole Kundich, Dillan Mateo, Ryan Phillips, Leif Waugh and Joey Ybarra.

Major all-stars

Sunnyvale National survived the first week of the major division all-star tourney, winning two of three games and reaching the final eight, before hitting a wall against Cupertino American pitcher Evan Short. National batsmen managed just one hit--Tyler Bond's fourth-inning double--in a 4-0 defeat.

Two days earlier, though, National's bats were alive from the outset in a 5-2 win over Serra. In the top of the first, Hector Lopez and Derek Martinez both singled and scored when Bond bashed a three-run homer. Lopez had three of National's nine hits and Bond had two.

Bond struck out seven Serra batters during the first three innings, and teammate Chet Radish shut them out in the final three frames. Kevin Convissar's double was the only Serra hit against Radish.

National began the tourney with a 4-3 win over Moreland, but fell into the consolation bracket with a 9-4 loss to Los Altos, despite home runs by Radish and Bond.

Against Moreland, National scored all of its runs after loading the bases in the second inning. Radish's two-run double was followed by Justin Rajah's RBI bunt single and a sacrifice fly by Lopez. First baseman Brian Gutierrez caught a line drive and stepped on first for a game-ending double play.

Other National all-stars were Jake Collins, Nick Aragon, Ryan Del Rosario, Harrison Moudy, Shane Bond, Trae Weninger and Armando Brambila.

Sunnyvale Metro went 1-2 against a tough schedule, while Serra and Southern finished 0-2.

In between a 7-0 opening loss to Campbell and a 4-2 defeat to Cupertino American, Metro outslugged Cupertino National, 10-9. Steven Gonzalves and Kyle Madden both crushed two-run homers in the victory. Their Metro teammates were Jason McCrorie, Nicky Molina, Michael Bourey, Davis Messer, Rusty Reed, Alex Kwiatkowski, Bailey Owen, Brian Duffy, Sean Mulcahy, Durrell Williams and Timmy Mateo.

Serra's all-stars were David Bauer, Gautum Chandiok, Kevin Convissar, Vincent Crosariol, Cameron Heen, Troy Hoffman, Zachary James, Matthew Kelley, Paul Martinez, Alec Mertens, Jim Roslund, Kyle Squarcia and Collin Warner.

Southern's all-stars included Randy Cressler, Jason Dwelle, Johnnie Greco, Nikko Hill, Andy Ishii, Brenden Johnson, Matt Maksim, Kyle Nishimoto, Victor Rodrigo, Brandon Ustaris and Nicolas Warmke.

10-11 all-stars

Serra's 2-2 record, including wins over National (7-6) and Southern (6-1), was the best showing of local 10-11 all-star teams. Jordan Chapman pitched a 3-hitter and belted an RBI triple against Southern.

Joining Jordan on the Serra all-stars were Michael Caballero, Curtis Currier, Jeffrey Hardy, David Item, Andrew James, Lawson Joos, Pablo Lozano, Todd Matsuura, Cory McGee, Adam Hayes Simkin, Ross Slaney and Colton Wisecarver.

The rosters of the other local teams follow:

Southern (0-2)--Austin Gregory, Parker Mitchell, Tony Carlotta, Kevin DeMarco, Kenny Kobetsky, Akhil Mauze, Kotaro Akama, Brittany Squarcia, David Castro, Travis Nichols, Mohit Kohli and Erik Krogstad;

National (0-2)--Garett Jones, Izzy Marquez, Vincent Renteria, Austin Cook, D.J. Briones, Brian Zeng, Grant Shomberg, Derek Rudoi, Darwin Aguilera, Isaac Marquez, A.J. Perez, Adam Verbrugge and Lexy Winters;

Metro (0-2)--Daniel Chae, Tyler Hawkinson, Nick Hoy, Zachary Kindelberger, Robbie Lee, Jason Martin, Ryan Pechulis, Matthew Rikamaru, David Sarver, Drew Thomason, Yuki Umeda and Jordan Wolfe.

Southern 8's first

A team from Sunnyvale Southern captured first place in a six-team, coach pitch tournament at Cupertino's Jollyman Park on June 24. The tournament, sponsored by Cupertino National, hosted the District 44 was a modified double-elimination. Each game lasted four innings, and each inning had a five-run limit except the fourth. Team members included Justin Bockholt, Matty Burke, Jackson Crewe, Dylan Fealtman, Nicholas Hance, Matthew Kelleher, Nicholas Klein, Steven Kwan, Josh Radin, Kyle Riemenschnitter, Quentin Warmke and Bobby Wood.