Publication Date: Friday, June 25, 2004
Palo Alto Babe Ruth City tourney champ will have something special to celebrate
Palo Alto Babe Ruth City tourney champ will have something special to celebrate
(June 25, 2004) by Keith Peters
Winning the Palo Alto Babe Ruth City Tournament this weekend should be meaningful for the champion. After all, it is the 50th anniversary season for the league.
Menlo Park Chevron could be the team celebrating on Sunday. It captured the regular-season title with a 14-4 record. Or, it could be runnerup Pillsbury-Winthrop (13-5) or defending champion Thomas Transfer (12-6), which won a tiebreaker to grab the No. 3 seed ahead of Dexter Company, the final playoff team.
All four squads will take the field tonight at Baylands Athletic Center. Menlo Park Chevron takes on Dexter at 5:30 p.m., followed by Pillsbury-Winthrop against Thomas Transfer at 8 p.m.
The winners meet Saturday at 2 p.m., with the losers facing off at 5 p.m. The championship game is set for Sunday at 2 p.m.
The 50th anniversary season began with 10 teams and 150 players representing Redwood City, Menlo park, East Palo Alto, Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley, Woodside, La Honda, Atherton and Palo Alto.
Babe Ruth baseball in Northern California in 1954 after starting up nationally three years earlier. Palo Alto was one of the three original leagues.
Palo Alto went independent in 1962, forming two six-team leagues that featured Palo Alto players only. Former Stanford pitching coach Tom Dunton was selected as the first president of Palo Alto Babe Ruth Baseball.
In the early years, opening day was held at Stanford's Sunken Diamond and often included celebrities. The 1960 opening day featured baseball legend Ty Cobb. Postseason play began with the district tournament, also held at Sunken Diamond.
Those sites moved when the Baylands Athletic Center was built in 1968 and opened as the new home for Palo Alto youth baseball teams. The facility is in its 36th year of operation, hosting yet another league playoff tournament.
Second-seeded Thomas Transfer made waves last season when it captured the playoff title by upending top-seeded Mathews Carlsen, which missed out on this season's postseason action after finishing 9-9.
While Menlo Park Chevron and Pillsbury-Winthrop appear as the favorites, it's likely any of the four teams have a shot at the crown.
Menlo Park Chevron was tested this week while holding a slim lead over Pillsbury-Winthrop. Menlo Park, however, responded with an 8-0 win over Veritas on Monday and then downed Mathews Carlsen on Wednesday, 6-1, to play off an earlier tie. Had Menlo Park lost on Wednesday, it would have fallen into a tie with Pillsbury-Winthrop.
Following this weekend's playoffs, district all-star action will get under way. The 13-year-olds will kick things off Tuesday in the District 6 event at the Belmont Sports Complex. The 14-year-old tournament will be hosted by Mountain View at McKelvey Park beginning July 6, while Palo Alto will host the 15-year olds at the same time.
Semipro
The Palo Alto Oaks will take a 5-1 record into Sunday's doubleheader against the host Richmond NACs at Salesian High. The Oaks dropped their first game of the season last Sunday during a doubleheader split with Fontanetti's.
The Oaks won the opener, 6-4, as Paly grad Colby Henard and Gunn grad Greg Matson combined on a four-hitter. Matson held the visitors hitless over the final three innings.
Gabe Duran had three hits, including a homer, while Jimmy Goethals had a homer among his two hits.
In the second game, Palo Alto unloaded 13 hits but also committed five errors in a 13-11 loss. The Oaks scored six times in the top of the seventh to make things interesting.
Art Battle, Phillip Girourd, Matsonm, Duran and Goethals all had two hits, with Duran and Goethals adding their second homers on the day. Matson contributed three RBI.
"But," said first-year coach Steve Espinoza, "the errors were too hard to overcome."
Goethals leads the team with a gaudy .667 batting average with Duran close behind at .619. Matson (.545) and Brian Cordero (.500) also have been clubbing the ball. Duran leads the way with 13 hits and 13 RBI in the six games.
Henard tops the pitching staff with a 3-0 mark and 22 strikeouts in 16 innings.
American Legion
Palo Alto Post 375 (5-1, 6-4) will be on the road this weekend with games at Union City (tonight) and Gilroy on Saturday, before returning home to host the East Bay Reds on Sunday at Palo Alto High at 5:30 p.m.
Menlo Park (3-2) survived a 16-hit attack by San Bruno to post a 10-9 victory Tuesday at Menlo-Atherton High. Menlo Park overcame a 9-2 deficit to pull out the victory.
M-A grad David Hicks had a homer and double, Kyle McCabe added three hits and Brendon Lyall pitched two scoreless innings for the victory. Although both teams combined for 31 hits, a throwing error by San Bruno in the sixth allowed the winning run to score.
Menlo School's Nathan Adelman had five hits in seven at-bats to lead the Redwood City Post 105 Blues to a doubleheader sweep of South San Francisco last Sunday, 5-3 and 2-0. Menlo's Andy Suiter allowed only two hits over five innings to get the win in Game 1, while recent Menlo grad Chuck Huggins allowed just two hits over six innings to get the win. Suiter struck out nine and Huggins six as Redwood City improved to 8-1 in league (13-3 overall).
Menlo Park swept South San Francisco on Saturday, 17-0 and 13-1. David Klein had four hits and six RBI in the two wins.
Little League
The annual District 52 all-star tournaments get under way Monday. Palo Alto is hosting the 9-10 all-stars while Foster City is hosting the 11-12 Majors.
Menlo-Atherton and Palo Alto National both open Monday in the 11-12 all-star tournament, both playing at 5:30 p.m. on opposite fields at Foster City's Sea Cloud Park.
In the 9-10 tournament, Palo Alto National opens at Hoover Park at 5:30 p.m.
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