Jul 17, 2008

Marvelous Majors run ends at Sectional

By Greg Lydon / Daily News Correspondent

FREMONT - Redwood City National Seniors All-Stars coach Joe Bozzuto has been spoiled this summer.

His group of All-Stars just kept winning.

"I've just been used to going out and getting a W every night the last couple of weeks," Bozzuto said.

The RWC National Little League Seniors All-Stars' deep run ended Wednesday night in the Section 3 Tournament.

Niles-Centerville scored one run in the sixth and the game winner in walk-off fashion to come from behind to defeat Redwood City 2-1 Wednesday night at Gomes Elementary School in Fremont.

The Seniors Sectional was hosted by Mission-San Jose Little League in Fremont.

"It was a really good game, these guys played their hearts out," Bozzuto said. "It's really tough. The bubble is finally popped."

Redwood City needed to defeat Niles-Centerville on back-to-back nights to advance to the Divisional round in Sacramento.

"We won three days in a row to get to the championship game," Bozzuto said. "I didn't tell the guys this yet, but as long as I've been coaching, this is the farthest I've taken a team. It's been very nice to have this adrenaline rush night after night."

Redwood City sent two teams to last week's District 52 final, with the National squad prevailing over RWC American to advance to the Sectional.

"It was great for our league to have two teams meet in the final," Bozzuto said. "We were set up with our rotation just like we wanted to finish this tournament out. We just didn't get enough hits to push our runners across today."

Alex Kinder put RWC National on the board in the first with a line-shot RBI double into the corner in right field.

Leadoff man Zeke Edwards walked to open the frame and scored on the double to give his club a 1-0 lead.

Luis Flores pitched another gem for Redwood City striking out two batters in 6 1/3 innings of duty on the bump.

Flores left the game in the seventh after hitting the 95 pitch count limit.

"(Flores) kept them guessing again tonight," Bozzuto said. "He threw a ton of change-ups tonight. He mixed in some fastballs and a curveball here and there."

Athen Sinodinos countered Flores in the classic pitchers duel, only yielding the one Redwood City score in the first inning.

Sinodinos didn't use the heavy change-up to frustrate batters like his opponent, as the hard-throwing righty preferred straight gas to get his work done.

"We've had some problems with the faster pitching this year," Bozzuto said. "Luis was feeling good tonight because of all the slow stuff he was throwing. We just left too many guys on base."

Redwood City couldn't get the big hit it needed at the plate, but the error-free performance on the field kept Redwood City in the game until the very end.

A perfect relay throw from the outfield to the Redwood City shortstop saved a run in the first inning. After a good throw to the cut-off man, the Niles-Centerville runner was gunned down at the plate by a perfect strike from shortstop Nick Brown.

The defensive play of the game came in the bottom of the fifth inning, when speedy center fielder Edwards kept another Niles-Centerville run off the board with a full extension diving grab on a sinking liner to end the frame.

"Zeke has been making plays like that in the out field every night during this tournament," Bozzuto said.

Spencer Romero hit an RBI single to left to tie the game at 1-1 in the sixth inning. Niles-Centerville took the lead in the following inning with a walk-off RBI single from Casey Jennings to advance the home team on to the next round.

"We eliminated two teams on the way to the title game, we've never done that before either," Bozzuto said.

Granada and Union City both were eliminated by RWC National.