Palo Alto 11s advance in Section 3 Little League Palo Alto 11s advance in Section 3 Little League (July 22, 2005)

by Keith Peters

After sweeping aside four opponents to win the District 52 11-year-old all-star tournament last week, Palo Alto manager Mike Witte underscored the accomplishment with an important note.

The Palo Alto players, Witte said, had yet to start hitting. Witte said the team would spend the few days before the start of the Section 3 Tournament working on its hitting. It was just a matter of time, Witte said, before the Palo Alto bats woke up. Those 16 hits coming off the Palo Alto bats Wednesday night evidently was that wakeup call Witte spoke of as the 11-year-old all-stars opened Section 3 action with a 10-2 victory over Castro Valley at Athans Downs Park in San Ramon. The triumph puts Palo Alto in the proverbial driver's seat and a second-round game Saturday against either Danville or Newark at 10 a.m. Palo Alto's offense was triggered by Freddy Avis, who led the way with four hits. Austin Braff added three, including a massive home run. Jordan Piha, Kevin Kannappan and Graham Marchant all contributed two hits. Marchant pitched five strong innings with Drake Swezey finished up with one solid inning of relief. Palo Alto pulled away from a 2-1 lead with three runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth. Palo Alto won this tournament last season in the 9-10 division. A victory on Saturday will put Palo Alto in the championship game Monday at 5:30 p.m. A challenge game, if needed, will be held Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. A loss Saturday means a consolation game Sunday at 1 p.m., followed by games Monday and Tuesday. Palo Alto National isn't the only local team remaining in postseason play. The Palo Alto Babe Ruth 13-year-old all-stars reached Thursday night's championship game of the NorCal State Tournament in Antioch with a 13-1 victory Tuesday night. The Palo Alto American Legion squad, meanwhile, was hoping to reach Saturday's 1 p.m. championship game of the Area 2 Tournament at Baylands Athletic Center and force a challenge game at 4 p.m. Palo Alto dropped its opening-round game on Wednesday to Danville, 8-0, but bounced back to eliminate San Bruno, 19-5. The put Palo Alto into Thursday's elimination game against the Redwood City Post 105 Blues. Post 375 needed to win that game to reach tonight's 7 p.m. consolation-bracket finals against the loser of last night's San Mateo-Danville game. Tonight's winner will advance to Saturday's finals against the San Mateo-Danville winner at 1 p.m. Second-seeded Palo Alto started out slow against No. 6 Danville, committing five errors and threatening only once - loading the bases in the sixth before seeing it end on a popup. Danville was seeded sixth only because the Hoots didn't play in a league this season. Ryan Young hit the first pitch thrown by Palo Alto's Brent Gardiner, launching it over the left-field fence. Danville had only one more hit than Palo Alto, but the timeliness of those hits made the difference. Palo Alto had beaten Danville, 3-2, in a wooden-bat tournament earlier this month in Oakland. This time, Palo Alto had two runners picked off at first and its top two hitters, Max Pinto and Nathan Ford, both went hitless in four at-bats. Post 375, however, came back a few hours later and pounded out 15 hits to bounce San Bruno from the double-elimination tournament. Ford missed the game because he was playing in the 31st annual Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game in San Jose, but Pinto got untracked with a home run. Also homering was Lance Turner, who blasted a grand slam during Palo Alto's five-run first inning. Gunn grad Colin Felch added three hits and three RBI to the winning cause to make a winner out of starter Brian Biniek. Redwood City staved off elimination by rallying from a 2-0 deficit to oust Half Moon Bay, 5-3. Brett Hart hit a one-out, walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to win it for the Blues. Hart said RC manager Tim Goode told him to wait for a curveball, and he did. The dramatic hit made a winner out of starter Daniel Rogers, who pitched a complete-game seven-hitter. He struck out the final four batters and finished with just 91 pitches, with no walks. Redwood City erased a 2-0 deficit with a three-run fourth inning, highlighted by an RBI double by current Menlo School player Sami Morgan and a run-scoring single by Menlo grad Nathan Adelman. American Legion B The Palo Alto and Menlo Park "B" teams will compete in the league playoffs beginning Tuesday at Los Altos High. Menlo Park has won nine of its past 12 games and is now 11-5 in the American Legion B standings following Monday's 7-2 win over San Jose at Menlo College. Shortstop Brian Roby had three hits and scored three runs and Jon Abramson struck out eight batters in seven innings Monday to lead the Menlo Park Bears. In the fifth, Mike Stosz and Roby singled and Joe Cain doubled for two more runs. Menlo Park added three in the sixth on a walk to Joey Stoval, a single by Abramson, a run-scoring double by Cody West and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Preimesberger. West then scored on a dropped fly ball to right hit by Stosz.

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