July 15, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Avis the driving force behind a title

by Keith Peters

It was a scrapbook kind of night for Freddy Avis in the championship game of the District 52 Majors 11s all-star tournament in Pacifica on Wednesday.

Avis pitched a complete game. He struck out nine. He had two hits. He scored the game's first run and drove in two in a big four-run fifth inning to secure a 6-1 victory that earned Palo Alto a berth in next week's Section 3 Tournament in San Ramon.

Even the fog stayed offshore and made it just a near-perfect night for Avis. The only thing missing was his father, Greg.

The senior Avis has been in Europe, following the daily activities in the Tour de France. Greg missed this opportunity last year when his then 9-10 all-stars won 16 games and played deep into August.

Perhaps anticipating such another Little League journey into the postseason, Greg picked up the Lance Armstrong Invitational from the beginning. Yet, he kept in close contact with his family, coaches and friends.

"He's been calling us," Freddy said. "I keep telling him we're winning. He keeps giving me tips on the phone. He knew I was pitching tonight.

"He's having a great time in France, but I bet he misses coaching."

Greg will be home in time to take over the managing duties that have fallen on very capable assistant Mike Witte, whose best move Wednesday was no move at all.

Witte's plan was to have Avis start and see how the game unfolded. Before the fifth, Witte had Drake Swezey loosen up - just in case.

"When Freddy saw I was warming up Drake, he said, "Coach, I want to finish this."

In the top of the fifth and with Palo Alto holding on to a 2-1 lead, Avis gave up a leadoff single. He then proceeded to strike out the side. At that point, Avis had thrown only 75 pitches.

Palo Alto broke the game open in its half of the inning. Owen Lewis walked and Chris Bisbee's hard grounder was thrown wide of second trying to get Lewis. James Huber hit into a fielder's choice, but Avis ripped a two-run double for a 4-1 lead. After Austin Braff's infield single moved Avis to third, Jordan Piha bounced a single over third to score two more.

Out came Avis for one more inning. He gave up a leadoff single, but induced a hard line-out to Braff at short. Then, it was all Avis as he struck out the final two batters and leaped for joy to celebrate his team's fourth-straight victory.

A short while later, Avis would be on the phone to his dad.

"I'll tell him we played a great game," Avis said. "It's about the team first."

First is where this team is used to finishing. It won the district and section titles last season and reached the championship game of the NorCal State Tournament before finally falling.

"We won 16 games last season and 11 of those were elimination games," Witte said. "Our pitching and defense carried us through this tournament, but our bats haven't woken up yet. That will come around and once we start hitting . . ."

PA National, which battled its way through the consolation bracket in this tournament last season, was perfect this time and used only five pitchers on a very deep staff. Rested arms bode well for the section tourney.

Greg Avis, of course, has been well-informed on the successful goings on with his team.

"He has been in contact with us (via e-mail) almost every night," Witte said. "We've been getting words of encouragement."

Wednesday's victory certainly was encouraging. Palo Alto scored six runs on only six hits and committed no errors. And, everyone played.

District 52 11-12s

Menlo-Atherton put the best record in league history into the books by remaining alive in the district tournament with an 8-6 win over San Mateo American in the consolation-bracket finals Wednesday night at Ortega School in Pacifica.

Mike Abramson, Ryan Chilcoat and Austin Hume all had two hits for the winners while Wade Boich contributed a double.

Menlo-Atherton took a 5-1 record into its first-ever championship game appearance Thursday night against defending champion Hillsborough. M-A needed to win that to force a challenge game Saturday at 9 a.m.

M-A and Hillsborough could wind up playing three times. Menlo-Atherton lost its first game after four straight wins with a 10-6 setback to Hillsborough on Tuesday.

Menlo-Atherton jumped to a 4-1 lead after one inning, sparked by Abramson's double. That was the first of five straight hits for M-A. Hume drove home Abramson, with he and Chilcoat both scoring when Ryan DeGregorio's single got past the centerfielder. Hunter Shaw doubled in DeGregorio and M-A looked to be on its way.

Hillsborough, however, answered with six runs in the top of the second and two more in the fourth.

Abramson, who scored the winning run in M-A's 4-3 win over Palo Alto National on Saturday, finished with four hits while Chilcoat had two. Hume contributed two RBI.

Also in the 11-12 tournament Tuesday, Palo Alto National's streak of four straight victories came to an end in a 7-2 loss to San Mateo American in the consolation-bracket semifinals.

Kevin Anderson hit a home run and drove in three runs while Max Schmarzo produced three hits, but a four-run fifth inning for San Mateo proved to be the difference as Palo Alto was eliminated.

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