Jul 9, 2008

7-run inning propels Alpine/West Menlo all-stars

By Greg Lydon / Daily News Correspondent

Quality pitching and strong defense highlighted the majority of the District 52 winners bracket semifinal between the 9-and-10-year-old Alpine-West Menlo All-Stars and Foster City at Belmont Sports Complex.

Taking a 4-2 lead into the final inning, Alpine exploded for a seven-run sixth inning, adding icing to the cake as Alpine came out victorious 11-3 on Monday evening.

Jared Lucian drove in a team-high four runs, including a towering two-run homer to deep left field in the sixth inning to lead Alpine to Wednesday night's winners bracket final against San Carlos.

San Carlos edged San Mateo National 2-1 in the first semifinal game.

"We got a great pitching performance from Kodiak Conrad tonight on the mound," Alpine coach Mark Martella said. "Great pitching effort all game long. The timely hitting came late in the game for us."

Foster City and San Mateo National will both play today in losers bracket action. The District 52 tournament is a double-elimination setup, avoiding the losers bracket for as long as possible is key to preserving team depth during the two-week tournament marathon.

"We're very excited to be here," Martella said. "Avoiding the loser bracket is the most important thing. You have to win eight straight days to get out if you lose on Day One. Pitching depth gets exhausted down there."

Conrad, a crafty left-hander, struck out six hitters in 4 1/3 innings of work for Alpine. Conrad's big curve ball and accurate fastball kept Foster City hitters off balance throughout the contest.

Alpine broke open the scoreless tie with a 4-run second inning. Miscommunication on a popup between the Foster City's second baseman and right fielder led to the ball dropping fair into no-man's land, allowing the first Alpine run of the night to score.

A fielder's choice scored the second run, then Lucian opened up his big night at the plate.

The Alpine catcher rocked an RBI double to center field, and two more Alpine runners scored on the big knock.

Ryan Callagy got Foster City back into the game in the third inning with a hot-shot RBI single to left to slice the Alpine lead to only three.

A wicked hop on a groundball to short got away from the Alpine fielder, allowing the second Foster City run to score, making the score 4-2 Alpine in the third.

Callagy took the mound in relief of starting pitcher Scott Ota in the fourth inning and quickly ran into trouble on the hill.

Alpine loaded the bases with two outs, but a slow roller to Callagy on the mound gave the pitcher the easy flip to first, helping Foster City get out of the major jam to keep the score within reach.

Mitch Martella held the Foster City bats down in the fifth inning, then the Alpine bats put the contest out of reach.

Andrew Cox ripped an RBI single to right field for the second run of the inning, then teammate Nick Stoner pummeled an RBI double to the left-center gap, bringing across two more teammates to make the score 8-2 Alpine.

Stoner scored on a passed ball during the next at-bat, just before Lucian put the finishing touches on the semifinal victory for Alpine.

Lucian bombed his second homer of the tournament to left field. The two-run shot easily cleared the fence in left field, and the blast capped off a 7-run sixth inning for Alpine-West Menlo.

"It felt really good to hit the home run," Lucian said. "The pitch was right down the middle."

Lucian and his teammates will get one day off from game action before hitting the field Wednesday in the winners bracket finale.

"Jared is one of our best pitchers, we just need him behind the plate also," Martella said. "He did a great job helping us with that big sixth inning tonight."

A new Little League rule states that if a player throws one pitch during the game, he is unable to play catcher the rest of the contest.

Because of the new rule, Martella didn't bring in Jared until the last inning to face the final two batters for Foster City.

"He's too valuable behind the plate," Martella said. "I'm not a big fan of the new rule."

Lucian played catcher the first five innings of play and went 3-for-5 with four RBIs in the game.