Article Courtesy of the Mercury News
June 2016
The long and arduous road to Williamsport, Pa., and the 70th annual Little League World Series has begun for hundreds of teams throughout the United States.
That road, which began for local teams this past weekend with the start of the District 44 tournament, became a much more difficult task for the Cupertino Little League major division all-stars after they dropped their opener to Moreland Little League 4-1 to fall immediately into the loser’s bracket.
In order to win the district title and advance to sectionals, Cupertino’s ‘stars will have to win seven straight games, starting Friday when they will meet Santa Clara Westside–a 5-0 first round loser to Santa Clara Briarwood–in an elimination game at the Mountain View Little League complex. Game time is slated for 5:30 p.m.
The winner of the District 44 title will advance to the Section 5 tournament July 16-21, at the fields of the Pajaro Valley Little League in Watsonville.
Four other local all-star squads representing the Serra, Sunnyvale Metro, Sunnyvale National and Sunnyvale Southern Little Leagues were scheduled to play their district openers this past Tuesday. […]
Able to manage just two hits and one run, Cupertino Little League couldn’t take advantage of an outstanding pitching performance by Ritvik Sajja, who allowed just three hits and struck out seven, in its loss to Moreland.
Two Cupertino errors led to two unearned runs in the bottom of the third inning, turning a tight 1-0 affair into a more comfortable 3-0 lead for Moreland.
In addition to Sajja, the Cupertino all-star contingent includes Benjamin Chang, Kevin Chen, John Damozonio, Bailey Gutierrez, Nicholas Hersh, Nathan Hoang, Eugene Jew, Jun Lee, Benjamin Kau, Ian Kimura, Connor Nieh and Anakin Trotter.
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Leading up to the District 44 tourney, the local leagues participated in the District 44 Tournament of Champions with the Serra Padres reaching the championship game, only to lose 4-0 to the Homestead Blue Jays.
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The Cupertino Diamondbacks scored in the bottom of the last inning to slip past Westside 8-7 in its TOC opener. Lee’s two-run homer was the big blow in the game for the winners.
The D-backs were ousted from further tourney play when they were pummeled 15-1 by the Homestead Blue Jays.
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In the junior baseball division’s TOC, the Cupertino Red Sox reached the finals, but lost the title game to the Los Altos Red Sox 13-9.
Cupertino had earned its championship game berth by knocking off the Briarwood Rockies 9-6 behind a combined six hits and six runs-batted-in by Lukas Hoang, Dylan Phillips, Madison Lay and Evan Shaw.
Other members of the Cupertino juniors all-star unit included Tate Boynton, Evan Cook, Sayf Hafidi, Jean Paul Herrera, Aaron Jew, Jake Kokeny, Connor Long, Parker McNair, Adam Nobunaga and Alex Woodbury.
Cupertino Little League’s other all-star teams this season included the 9-10 year old contingent of Fareed Ahmed, Ketih Beltramo, Kevin Gong, Michael Heydinger, Wyatt Hook, Ratik Iyer, Kyle Kimora, Henry Lay, Phillip Long, Jak Ringer, Jon Ringer, Daryan Roesky and Sravik Sajja; the 10-11 squad of Nolan Bell, Derek Hsiao, Gavin Hsu, Ryan Lu, Cameron Miller, Xander Mommer, Terrance Pai, Arnav Reddy, Enzo Tersini, Alex Wu, Jesse Yao and Anthony Yew; and seniors unit of Christopher Anderson, Justin Chow, Justin DeCarlo, Christian Garber, Ryan Hada, Ander Hersh, Nathan Hui, Riley Jennings, Jason Koontz, Tommy Windstorm, Lemuel Marucot jr., Dylan Robinson, Payam Salabi, Ginga Sato and Nikhil Venkat.
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