Jul 4, 2008

Local briefs: Half Moon Bay holds off Palo Alto stars' surge

FROM DAILY NEWS DISPATCHES

Half Moon Bay beat Palo Alto National 11-7 in the third round of the winners bracket in the Little League District 52 10-and-11-year-olds All-Stars Tournament on Thursday evening in Pacifica, but not before Palo Alto staged a big comeback.

HMB led 11-1 going into the bottom of the fifth when Palo Alto rallied with two runs in the fifth and five more in the sixth to make it 11-7. Palo Alto had the bases loaded when the game ended with the tying run at the plate.

Enrico Nuno started for Half Moon Bay and picked up the win, pitching two scoreless innings. He also hit a home run. Chet Silviera had two hits for Half Moon Bay.

Kenta Yanagisawa hit a two-run home run for Palo Alto, which got a single and three walks from Will Snodgrass

Andrew Robinson and Griffin Cool each reached base three times for Palo Alto. Cook scored two runs and made a diving catch in center field.

Palo Alto plays Sunday, probably against Hillsborough, a team Palo Alto beat 13-8 in the first round of the tournament.

Titans knock off South City

The Titans, a San Mateo/Foster City Joe DiMaggio team, won its opening game in the Yountville Fourth of July Tournament, beating South San Francisco 11-6 Thursday afternoon.

San Mateo/Foster City registered nine hits, three of them by Medeiros, who had two doubles. Max Camplin hit a three-run home run in the third inning as his team blew the game open with a four-run rally. Danny Marenco added two hits, including a double

Titans pitcher Joey Roldan worked six innings, allowing four runs and striking out three.

Rustin Mayorga had two doubles for South San Francisco.

The teams play again today, but not against each other. The Titans play Sonoma at Napa High School. If they win, the Titans will be pool champions and will play a doubleheader for the tournament title Sunday against the other pool winner.

Cohn earns school honor

Burlingame's Nick Cohn, a rising senior at Mid-Peninsula High School, was selected as the Menlo Park school's 2007-08 athlete of the year.



Zvonzavera enters tourney

The Bank of the West Classic, the women's pro tennis tour's annual stop at Stanford, is only wo weeks away and the field got even stronger on Thursday. Russian standout Vera Zvonareva, a six-time WTA Tour singles champion and currently the 14th-ranked player in the world, committed to play.

For the first time since 2002, the Bank of the West Classic field boasts four players in the top 10 including eight-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams (No. 6), defending tournament champion Anna Chakvetadze (No. 8), 2008 Wimbledon semifinalist Elena Dementieva (No. 5) and 2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli (No. 10).

Other players expected to be on hand include Lindsay Davenport, Sania Mirza, Daniela Hantuchova, Nadia Petrova, Patty Schnyder, Shahar Peer, Ai Sugiyama and Li Na.

Stanford rowers in quarters

The Stanford men's rowing freshman eight dominated once again Thursday in the Temple Cup Challenge draw at the Henley Royal Regatta in England. The Cardinal boat turned in a winning time of 6:51, good for a 4 1/2-length victory over Fitzwilliam College of Cambridge, England. The win sets up an All-American quarterfinal matchup today against Cornell.

The Cardinal matched its performance from the day before, and the time of 6:51 came in as the third-fastest time of the day among the eight winning boats. Cornell clocked 7:07.

"The guys executed well today," Stanford frosh coach Pete Giese said. "It is a great experience to be able to come to an international regatta like Henley and continue to advance. The guys will need a great race tomorrow as they face the lightweight national champions from Cornell."

Seven seat Tyler Scott continues to be impressed by Henley, "It is really energizing to race in front of such a huge crowd. I never thought I'd have a chance to have 20,000 people cheering for us. It's really been a great experience so far."

The Stanford frosh eight lineup: Miguel Sugay (cox), Tommy Mina (stroke), 7. Tyler Scott, 6. Sebastian Peterlin, 5. Alex Syverson, 4. David Evans, 3. Dane McFadden, 2. Dixon Bross and 1. Austin Keely.