Jul 9, 2008

Redwood City's junior achievement

Surprising - and surprised - pitcher helps 13-and-14-year-old all-stars capture championship

By Julio Lara / Daily News Correspondent

The Half Moon Bay 13-and-14-year-old All-Stars thought they had dodged a bullet Tuesday afternoon when Redwood City National's ace, Anthony Hillerby, was deemed ineligible to pitch given his 95-pitch performance two days ago.

Any break they could get was great because they were looking at a tall order if they were to capture the Little League District 52 Juniors Tournament title by winning back-to-back games against a good Redwood City team.

But RWC's Brian Clifford proved that the Nationals were a two-man shooting show, pitching six innings of spectacular baseball, leading Redwood City to a 6-1 victory.

The 93-pitch performance came as a surprise, even to Clifford, who despite some control issues, was able to dance in and out of trouble.

"Two or three innings," Clifford said, when asked if he expected to go six strong for Redwood City. "Half Moon Bay is a really good team. I thought they were going to crush me."

While HMB had very little trouble getting on base, they never got the big hit that may have turned things around for the host team - all thanks to Clifford.

"I felt good," he said.

RWC spotted him a one-run lead right off the bat when Clifford himself started a two-out rally by singling. After a stolen base and an errant throw, Clifford came around to score on a Hillerby single to right.

Half Moon Bay loaded the bases in the bottom of the first with only one out, but Clifford got Willie Carlson to line out to short and Ben Duarte to ground out harmlessly. The inning foreshadowed things to come for Half Moon Bay, which would leave another runner stranded in the second, and after a one-out triple and a hit batter in the third were left on base, things didn't look too good for HMB.

RWC, on the other hand, kept getting help from Hillerby, even if it wasn't with his arm. His triple in the top of the third drove in another run for RWC. He'd later score on a wild pitch to put the Nationals up by three.

"He would probably be the MVP of the tournament if they had one," said Redwood City head coach Mark Satterlee. "He's been ripping the ball."

After RWC squandered an opportunity to add to the lead in the fifth, HMB finally broke through in its half of the frame. Josue Lopez got on aboard with a walk and came around to score when Gabe Naverette's grounder to short found its way into left field. Down by two, HMB was thinking comeback.

But Clifford made sure that never happened - ending his day by getting out of a jam in the bottom of the sixth.

RWC added some much-needed insurance in the seventh by sending nine batters to the plate and capitalizing on three walks and three hits to add three runs to the lead.

The 6-1 advantage was more than enough for Nicholas Gasparini, who came in to seal the deal in the seventh, using a great breaking ball to do so. He got Nick Curran to pop out to second to end the game and start the celebration for the Nationals.