Willow Glen Resident

Sports

Smits, Cramer lead Lincoln Glen to win

By Kevin Sparrer

Zachary Smits and Brandon Cramer were offensive generators, and provided enough power to lift the Lincoln Glen Little League 9-year-old all-star team to a 6-4 win over Willow Glen last week in the District 12 tournament played on the Willow Glen field.

Literally, Smits and Cramer were all the Lincoln Glen all-stars had on June 30. Lincoln Glen could manage only two hits in the contest, a double by Smits and a single from Cramer, but it turned out to be enough for the win.

The six runs for Lincoln Glen came from Smits, Cramer, Jack Rothenberg, William Crummey, Dominic Vargas and Anthony Spadafore.

The win evened Lincoln Glen's record at 2-2 in the tournament.

Though Willow Glen lost the contest, the host team was able to generate many hits. Noah Jobson had the big bat with a pair of doubles, and Nathaniel Stearns had two hits, including a double, and scored a run. Andrew Allsup had a pair of singles and scored twice, Andy Halden doubled and scored, Joey Bowles doubled and Xander Jimenez singled.

The loss also left Willow Glen at 2-2 in the tourney.

Lincoln Glen was coming off of a 12-11 win over Union on June 29. Kevin Tucker knocked two hits, and Robert Stewart singled and scored twice. Rothenberg, Smits, Joseph Hutchings and Nicholas Paskert each singled and scored. Tyler Rando and Spadafore scored twice, and Nicholas Gutierrez singled.

Lincoln Glen fell to Almaden North 12-11 on June 26 despite a strong offensive attack. Rothenberg knocked three hits and scored three times, Tucker and Spadafore each had a pair of hits and scored, both Stewart and Vargas singled and scored, Smits had a double, Hutchings and Cramer singled and Rando, Crummey and Gutierrez each scored.

In the first game of the tournament, Lincoln Glen lost to Saratoga 7-5 on June 23. Rando singled and scored, while Crummey, Cramer, Gutierrez and Tucker each singled. Rothenberg, Smits, Paskert and Spadafore each scored.

Willow Glen defeated Almaden North 9-8 on June 28 for its second win of the tournament. Tanner Startwell led the attack with two hits, Halden singled and scored three times, Stearns doubled, Angel Villa singled and scored, Bowles and Calvin Quittner each singled, Andrew Piro scored twice and both Cameron Camargo and Nate Hitchcock scored.

On June 23 Willow Glen defeated Union 14-4 with a total of 18 hits. Jobson smashed three doubles and scored twice in the win; Allsup and Jimenez each smacked a double and scored twice; and Camargo had three hits, including a double, and scored once. Quittner had three hits and scored three times, Stearns knocked a triple and scored twice, Villa singled and scored, Kyle Miller singled and Halden scored.

The first loss of the tournament for Willow Glen came 17-2 to Los Gatos National on June 22. Willow Glen managed only five hits. Halden knocked two hits, while Jimenez had the only double and scored a run. Quittner singled and scored, and Villa also singled.

The team on top of the north pool at the end of pool play was scheduled to play the second-place team from the south pool on July 2 at Willow Glen while the top team in the south pool would host the second-place team in the north pool at the San Jose American Little League field, also on July 2.

The winners of those two games were to meet on July 3 at Willow Glen at 5:30 p.m. to decide the top team in the District 12
9-year-old all-star tournament.