Article Courtesy of the Mercury News
June 2012
Cupertino National’s 9-10 division all-star team was the last local Little League squad standing as District 44 tournament play was winding down on July 9.
Playing in the elimination bracket final, CN built early leads of 6-0 and 8-3 and seemed on its way to the championship game against Santa Clara Briarwood. But Santa Clara Homestead turned the game around with five runs in the third and three in the fourth en route to an 11-9 triumph, knocking the CN all-stars out of contention for the D44 flag.
CN, which won its first game 10-9 over Moreland when Bryan Holt’s two-run, walk-off home run capped a four-run rally, tried to stir up more sixth-inning magic against Homestead.
Trailing by two, Henry Lassa led off with a single to left. After two outs, Charlie Yun and Mitchell Fong, who each reached base four times and combined for five of the team’s 10 hits in the game, fueled hope with walks, loading the bases.
Nitin Subramanian, who had delivered a clutch, three-run double against Moreland and rapped three hits in a 12-1 victory over Santa Clara Westside, smacked the first pitch he saw, but it was caught for the final out of CN’s season.
It was the second tough defeat in a row for the CN kids. They also lost 1-0 to Briarwood in the winners’ bracket final on July 5. CN finished with a 2-2 record and third place out of 14 teams, while Briarwood went on to beat Homestead 7-1 in the district final.
Against Briarwood, Jeffrey Tian was CN’s only base runner, as his fifth-inning single broke up Geremy McCollough’s bid for a perfect game. Meanwhile, Tate Boynton pitched effectively for CN, allowing just an unearned run in five innings of work.
Three days earlier, CN had plenty of base runners against Westside. Holt’s second homer of the tourney sparked a four-run first and CN led 12-0 after three innings. Brett Park, Subramanian and Yun had three hits apiece and Alex Woodbury chipped in with a hit and two RBIs.
Arjun Ghuman, Willy Liou and Brandon Ng were other contributors for CN, which was led by manager Richard Park and coaches Tom Holt and Richard Yun.
Cupertino American, Tri-Cities, Sunnyvale Southern and Sunnyvale National all scored wins in the double-elimination tourney and finished 1-2. Sunnyvale Metro and Serra went 0-2.
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The next day Cupertino American battled Tri-Cities in another one-run game, but lost 8-7.
Tri-Cities team members included Evan Cook, Jean Paul Herrera Brayden Hersh, Madison Lay, Lofton Lechner, Conner Long, Parker McNair, Dylan Phillips, Skyler Santos, Erik Schindler, Evan Shaw, Shaun Wu, manager Todd McNair and coaches Nick Long and Dan Cook.
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9-year-olds
Although not an official Little League all-star event, several local leagues gave players post-season experience in an 8-9 friendly tournament hosted by Campbell LL. Each team played two games in pool play.
Tri-Cities (1-1) included Conor Burns, Bailey Gutierrez, Jean Paul Herrera, Nicholas Hersh, Lukas Hoang, Benjamin Kau, Ian Kimura, Jonathan Leslie, Conner Long, Adam Nobunaga, Dylan Phillips, Brian Yang, manager Don Phillips and coaches Nick Long and Tai Kimura.
Cupertino American (0-2) included Daniel VanWiggeren, Tetsuo Eng, Vivek Iyer, Maya Palumbo, Diego Perez, Maxwell Chien, Jackson Prudhon, Ethan Lin, Niranjan Joshi, Jonathan Huang, Garrett Blosen, manager Greg VanWiggeren and coach David Forer.
8-year-olds
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Tri-Cities competed in the Southern event. T-C team members included Bailey Gutierrez, Nicholas Hersh, Nathan Hoang, Amir Iravani, Benjamin Kau, Ian Kimura, Jun Lee, Michael Moriarty, Yuma Raux-Moriwaki, Matthew Ng, Zachary Nobunaga, Justin Oliver, Edan Sasson, Jonathan Seo, manager Tai Kimura and coaches Joe Gutierrez and Jeff Oliver.