Despite home runs by Alonzo Vergara and Robert O’Connor and pitcher Casey Latini’s three scoreless innings to start the game, Sunnyvale National ended just shy of winning the District 44 junior all-star tournament.
A day after beating Los Altos 2-1 and forcing an “if necessary” game, Los Altos used four-run rallies in the fourth and sixth innings to capture a 9-6 victory and the D44 flag.
Sunnyvale National forced the final contest by winning four elimination games in five days–21-11 over Tri-Cities, 15-5 over Cupertino National, 17-7 over Mountain View and the one-run decision over Los Altos.
After Vergara allowed a run in the top of the first, he and Marlon Arce combined to shut out the eventual district champs the rest of the way. Vergara was the winning pitcher, working 4 2/3 innings, and Arce went the final 2 1/3 frames for the save. The duo gave up six hits and eight walks, but continually worked out of jams. Catcher Zac Pilcher helped out by throwing out a couple of runners trying to steal second.
Vergara’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first tied the game, chasing home Latini, who had singled, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch.
The decisive run was scored in the last of the third. Shortstop David Hernandez came through with a two-out single and stole second, but kept on running when the throw went into center field. Hernandez ran all the way home when the ball was misplayed in the outfield.
In the final game, National rallied from a 5-1 deficit with three runs in the last of the fifth. Latini singled home Will Beaufore and then scored on Vergara’s round-tripper. O’Connor belted a solo homer in the sixth and Hernandez rapped an RBI single in the seventh, but it was not enough.
Cupertino National finished fourth in the seven-team tourney, going 2-2. After a first-round loss, National posted elimination bracket wins over Moreland 12-4 and Cupertino American 6-5.
Nathan Hui’s infield groundout knocked in Josh Huang in the top of the seventh broke a 5-5 tie, and relief pitcher Christopher Anderson blanked CA for the final three outs to preserve the win.
National jumped in front with five runs in the top of the first, as Akshay Mahajan’s three-run double and Christian Garber’s RBI single were key hits.
CA kept it close behind the shutout relief work of Daniel Lien, and rallies for two runs in the fourth and three in the sixth. Andrew Destin singled, Lien doubled and both scored in the fourth to make it 5-2. In the sixth, Ken Pflaum smacked a two-run double and ran home on Tatsumi Eng’s double, tying the game at 5.
National finished with nine hits to CA’s eight. Mahajan, Kaleb Chung and Huang had two hits apiece in the win. CA’s Johnnie Teng also delivered a pair of hits.
CA had won its opener 7-6 over Tri-Cities and lost to Mountain View 12-5, before bowing in the elimination game. Other CA all-stars were Johnnie Teng, Martin Thurman, Walter Bonser, Chris Civilikis, Alex Chang, Trevor Weidner, Garrett Riley and Justin Shin.
The Tri-Cities team included Justin Chow, Trevor Malahy, Ryan Marks, Ajay Prasad, Brandon Takaki, Lucas Banks, Matthew Kimball, Dylan Thiel, Ander Hersh, Suki Patwardhan, Payam Salabi and Dylan Robinson.
11-12 all-stars
After winning its first two games of the 11-12 all-star tourney, Tri-Cities dropped a pair of one-run games, 9-8 to Moreland in a winners’ bracket semifinal and 5-4 to Campbell in an elimination game.
T-C, which placed fifth out of 14 teams, was one of seven teams in a row that Campbell beat, working its way back through the elimination bracket to the championship game against Santa Clara Briarwood. Moreland placed third.
T-C led 7-3 against Moreland, heading into the last of the fourth, but gave up a 5-spot and another run in the fifth to lose the lead and the game.
T-C had 13 hits in the game. Madison Lay ripped a triple and double, while teammates Parker McNair and Sahil Panwar tagged two doubles each. Yu Okumura, Adam Nobunaga and Brayden Hersh also had two hits each in the loss to Moreland.
In the elimination game against Campbell, T-C fell behind 5-0 in the first before fighting back. With McNair pitching shutout ball, T-C rallied for single runs in the second and fourth and two in the fifth.
9-10 all-stars
While Serra won the District 44 championship, both Sunnyvale Metro and Tri-Cities made strong showings in the 9-10 division. Metro earned fourth place in the 13-team tournament with a 4-2 record and T-C went 2-2.
After losing its opener 9-5 to Santa Clara Homestead, Metro stayed alive in the elimination bracket with consecutive wins over Sunnyvale Southern 24-1, Cupertino National 5-2, Tri-Cities 13-12 and Moreland 24-17. The strong run ended against Los Altos 13-3.
Alex Hall and Lucas Heuchert sparked the romp over Southern with three hits apiece and Gianni Cassara had two. Jonathan Cohen singled twice and Aidan Callahan doubled for Southern (0-2).
Hall delivered another three-hit game against Tri-Cities, including a walk-off, two-run double in the bottom of the sixth. Trailing 12-11, Hall drove a ball that bounced over the fence at Cupertino American’s John Welch Field, scoring Cassara and Shinsuke Nakamura.
Cooper Levas, Alex Babusis and Nakamura each had two hits in the win. Nathan Hoang had two hits and three RBIs to pace T-C, including a double in the top of the first that chased home Benjamin Kau with the first run.
Doubles by Erik Heuchert, Hall, Travis Soares and Levas helped Metro score four times in the bottom of the first. Nakamura and Jason Vo singled and scored in a three-run second, as Metro stretched it to 7-1.
But Tri-Cities did not give up, tying the game 7-7 with a six-run fourth. Hoang’s second double of the game drove in two. Metro answered with three runs to regain the lead, but T-C went back in front, 12-10, with a five-run fifth. The big hit of the comeback was Ian Kimura’s two-run double, knocking in Samir Panwar and Amir Iravani, who started the rally with singles.
Metro got one run back in the bottom of the fifth and Cassara pitched a scoreless sixth, setting the stage for Hall’s last-inning heroics. Other contributors for Metro during the six-game, nine-day run were Mihir Borkar, Grayson Cassara, Kailash Menon and Joshua Shiu.
Tri-Cities finished the tourney 2-2 with a first-round win over Campbell 12-6 and an elimination bracket triumph over Sunnyvale National 22-6.
Kao and Jun Lee each had two hits against Campbell, including two-run doubles. Niko Hersh went 3 for 4 with a double and Justin Oliver and Eugene Jew added two hits apiece.
T-C held a narrow 8-6 lead against National, before blowing the game open with five runs in the fifth and nine in the sixth. T-C finished with 20 hits, seven for extra bases, including Kau’s triple and double and a pair of two-baggers by Hoang.
Other T-C contributors were Daniel Na, Zachary Nobunaga and Kevin Chen.
Bradley Acosta smacked two doubles for Sunnyvale National, which finished 0-2 in the tourney.
10-11 all-stars
Metro and Cupertino American each picked up wins and finished 1-2 in the 10-team tourney.
The highlight for Metro was a 4-0 shutout of American in an elimination game. Ben Wiborn pitched all six innings, allowing just one hit.
Other Metro all-stars included Johnny Barnes, Rashaun Bowden, Josh Demo, Brennan Kelly, Athens Kontinos, Conner Lorelle, Aiden Maddison, Lougan Meyer, Evan Ramirez, Koby Sherman and Cole Shumake.
Cupertino American’s win came against Southern 11-1.
CA’s all-stars included William Chang, Roy Chien, Tetsuo Eng, Jonathan Huang, Vivek Iyer, Anshul Kamatala, Fred Lee, Ethan Lin, Jason Lo, Yash Maheshwaran, Maya Palumbo, Jackson Prudhon and Daniel VanWiggeren.
