Varsity Mens Baseball
Alhouse King 8, LPM 4
Date of competition: Saturday, June 13, 2009
Correct this score or report an objectionable comment
Comments: 16
Despite falling behind 4-1, Alhouse King never doubted they would come back to win Saturday’s Palo Alto Little League City Tournament championship game.
And come back they did, as top-seeded Alhouse rallied with seven runs in the third and fourth innings to defeat No. 2 LPM Fire Protection Services 8-4.
“I’ve been coaching for ten years and it’s my first time we’ve won the city tournament. So it’s been a long process to get to this,” said Alhouse head coach Ted Tracy.
“This particular team was really talented, but they really had great leadership from amongst themselves, especially from the 12’s (year-olds),” said Tracy.
In both the third and fourth innings, Alhouse (24-1) sent eight batters to the plate and got 11 hits to take control of the game. First baseman Nick Beeson doubled in both innings, driving in a combined three runs and catcher Andrew Robinson hit a pair of RBI singles.
On the mound, Alhouse starter Kenta Yanagisawa rebounded from his rough start to pitch his final two and two thirds innings scoreless. Yanagisawa picked up the win, pitching five and two thirds innings, allowing only two earned runs and striking out 10. Yanagisawa seemed to get stronger as the game wore on, striking out the first two batters of the sixth inning before being forced to leave the mound due to his pitch count.
“Kenta was obviously our key player on the team. He pitched beautifully,” said Tracy.
Yanagisawa said that “the motivation of the dog pile and the trophy” pushed him to his success on the mound.
Yanagisawa also contributed to the Alhouse offense, going two-for-three at the plate with an RBI double in the fourth.
Through the first two and a half innings, LPM (19-6) looked poised to knock off undefeated Alhouse and force a winner-take-all game on Sunday (LPM needed to beat Alhouse twice to win the championship after losing 3-2 to All Out Baseball last Saturday). In the top of the first, LPM forced two runners across home on an RBI single from Jasper McEvoy.
LPM expanded their lead to 4-1 in the third thanks to some aggressive base running. LPM stole five bases in the inning, and Ravi Levens and Roy Shadmon both stole home.
“They had us on the ropes early in the game,” said Tracy. “But we didn’t give up.”
“Our team’s pretty good at not getting down. We weren’t that down,” said Yanagisawa.
Yanagisawa responded to the deficit by taking over the game, only allowing one hit after the third inning and striking out four. For the final out of the game, Corey Bicknell came to mound, getting a strikeout to clinch the championship for Alhouse.
Beeson was the big bat on the day for Alhouse, picking up four RBI with two doubles on a two-for-three day.
“He’s been doing that all year. We try to load them (the bases) up in front of him,” said Tracy. “He came through.”
Robinson also went two-for-three and collected two RBI to match two runs scored. Bicknell executed the job of a leadoff man to perfection, hitting three singles and scoring all three times.
For LPM, McEvoy added to his two RBI in the first inning with another in the third to finish the game one-for-three with three RBI. Shadmon reached base all three times he came to the plate and scored twice.
posted by Colin Becht on Jun 13, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Comments: 9
Runs |
Hits |
Errors | |||||||||||||||
| LPM | 4 |
5
|
2
|
||||||||||||||
| Alhouse King | 8 |
12
|
1
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
| HR |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
| Team Records:
Alhouse King: 24-1 LPM: 19-6 |
|||||||||||||||||
| Notes from the game: |
|||||||||||||||||
Report Objectionable Comment or Incorrect Information.
posted by Colin Becht on Jun 13, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Final |
|
Report Objectionable Comment or Incorrect Information.
posted by 1 on Jul 21, 2014 at 10:52 am
Final |
|
Report Objectionable Comment or Incorrect Information.
posted by 1 on Aug 9, 2015 at 1:05 am
Final |
|
Report Objectionable Comment or Incorrect Information.
posted by 1 on Jan 20, 2016 at 2:59 pm
Final |
|
Report Objectionable Comment or Incorrect Information.
posted by 1 on Mar 1, 2016 at 9:01 pm
Final |
|
Report Objectionable Comment or Incorrect Information.
posted by 1 on Oct 31, 2016 at 2:24 am
Final |
|
Report Objectionable Comment or Incorrect Information.
posted by 1 on Jan 23, 2017 at 3:48 am
Report Objectionable Comment or Incorrect Information.
posted by Ted Tracy, manager on Jun 13, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Report Objectionable Comment or Incorrect Information.
posted by Keith Peters on Jun 14, 2009 at 8:38 am
 Corey Bicknell (right) is congratulated by Nick Beeson after Bicknell scored in the fourth inning of Saturday's Palo Alto Little League City Tournament, won by Alhouse King 8-4. Photo by Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online. |  Nick Beeson of Alhouse King was beeming after getting one of his two doubles, which help account for three RBI during Saturday's 8-4 win over LPM in the city tournament finals. Photo by Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online. |  Winning pitcher Kenta Yanagisawa struck out 10 and allowed only two earned runs in Alhouse King's 8-4 win over LPM in the finals of the Palo Alto Little League City Tournament on Saturday. Photo by Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online. |
| Add your own comment or photos * Required! |
Stay informed.
Get the day's top headlines from Palo Alto Online sent to your inbox in the Express newsletter.
