With another victory on Sunday, the Alpine/West Menlo 9-and-10 year old all-star team stayed alive in the Northern California Divisional Championship series in Campbell.
The team was scheduled to play again Monday night, after The Almanac’s print deadline. Check TheAlmanacOnline.com for updates. A win in that game would move Alpine into the Northern California championship game on Wednesday.
Sunday’s 7-6 victory over the Sundown Little League of Stockton was another thrilling game in a series that has seen Alpine capture the District 52 and Section 3 championships.
Sunday’s win was essential for Alpine to stay in the hunt since Alpine had lost Saturday 9-8 to Chico Central Little League. Even in that loss, Alpine nearly made another late-inning comeback, piling up four runs in the sixth and final inning, just one shy of keeping the game going.
Sunday’s game was Alpine’s third in three days, and the pitching staff was nearly exhausted, said Alpine manager Mark Martella. The pitchers were held to strict pitch counts.
Mitch Martella started the game, his first-ever start for Alpine, but was replaced after two innings by Justin Galvin, who pitched only one inning when he was replaced by Jared Lucian, who finished the game.
“We tried to keep Mitch under 45 pitches, Justin under 20 pitches … and [Lucian] finished the forth, fifth and sixth for us, and he only threw 37 pitches in three innings,” said Mark Martella.
Tired pitching staffs were evident on both teams as runs came in flurries.
Alpine jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but saw that margin quickly disappear as Sundown scored four in the second to take the lead.
After four innings, Sundown had stretched its lead to 6-3. But in the fifth, Sundown removed its starting pitching, and Alpine took advantage, scoring four runs to take the lead for good, 7-6.
Matt Hennefarth played a key role in the Alpine offense as he went 3-3 with a single and two doubles.
Alpine began its play in the NorCal Division championship series Friday night against Woodcreek Little League from Roseville, California, winning 5-4 in a game that essentially turned into a home run derby: three by Woodcreek and one by Alpine. However, Alpine’s was a grand-slam homer by Travis Jones that provided the margin for victory.
Alpine manager Martella attributed the home runs to the small size of the ballpark in Campbell. “Our traditional fields are 200-foot fences, and this field was 170 feet in left and center, and 160 feet in right,” he said. “”[The home runs] were balls that would have been either caught or singles or doubles in a regular field.”
Section 3
On July 20, Alpine defeated home team Tracy 10-9 in the Section 3 championship game at Jefferson School in Tracy.
In a tournament where the standard game is six innings, Alpine required 10 before it could knock off Tracy for the second time in the series.
After five and a half innings, Alpine trailed 9-3 with only two outs left in the game. Alpine made the most of those two outs, scoring six times to tie the game and force it into extra innings.
At that point, pitching and defense took over. The game remained knotted up at 9-9 through three and a half innings.
In the bottom of the tenth, Alpine was up and Jared Lucian singled with one out, bringing Matt Hennefarth to the plate. Hennefarth crushed a double, and Alpine took a chance, attempting to score Lucian from first. In a close play at the plate, Lucian was ruled safe, despite protests from the managers of the Tracy team.
For the Alpine all-stars, last-at-bat wins have been nothing out of the ordinary. In the District 52 championship game, Alpine beat San Carlos 3-2 on a one-out rally in the bottom of the sixth.
With the score tied 2-2, Nick Stoner started off the rally with a double, and moved to third on a single by Mitch Martella. Andrew Cox then produced the winning hit on a single to right-center that scored Stoner.
See TheAlmanacOnline.com for more details.
