Jul 25, 2008

Big bats give South City a big win

Los Altos-Mountain View falls in first round of regional tournament

By Greg Lydon / Daily News Correspondent

SAN JOSE - Led by a meaty middle of the order, the South San Francisco 15-and-16-year-old Colt All-Stars broke out the big sticks and whacked Los Altos-Mountain View 9-5 in an opening-round regional tournament win Thursday night at PAL Field in San Jose.

South City scored runs in the first five innings before Los Altos-Mountain View reliever Tyler Davis struck out the side in the sixth.
"We're going to score runs," South City coach Matt McGrew said. "We have a team with a lot of pop. Our goal is to score every inning. We did a great job of that tonight."

South City will play the Seaside-San Jose winner Saturday afternoon. Los Altos will play the loser in an elimination game at noon.

"They were strong up and down the lineup tonight," Los Altos-Mountain View coach Jo Jo Asunsolo said. "They overpowered us with good solid hitters."

Los Altos tested South City starting pitcher Anthony Gomes early, putting up a couple of runs in the first inning. Anthony Frediani hit a sac fly to left to put Los Altos on the board, but the lead wouldn't last long.

The No. 2 hitter for South City drew a one-out free pass, putting a runner on with the big bats in the middle of the order on their way to the dish. First baseman Rustin Mayorga cracked a low fastball over the fence in left-center. The two-run shot put South City ahead 2-1.

"I golfed it," Mayorga said. "It was low and outside. It's good to score runs early. We all know each other and have played together for a while. Things fell into place. We just jell together."

While Mayorga was collecting high-fives from teammates in the dugout, cleanup hitter Steve Knudson dispatched a solo smash of his own. The back-to-back jacks started a big night at the plate for South City.

Frediani ripped in his second RBI of the night in the third inning to pull his team within two scores for Los Altos, but the relentless South City offense didn't slow down, scoring twice in the third and fourth innings to jump to an 8-2 advantage.

Two balls left the venue in the first inning for South City, but the shot of the game came off the bat of Los Altos-Mountain View catcher Chris Hoo. He destroyed a high fastball to left. The ball didn't land behind the fence; it landed on the freeway.

"That was a bomb," McGrew said. "That's a really good catcher over there. I have seen one hit off the side of the freeway when I played here, but never saw one actually bounce on the freeway."

Hoo's dinger made the score 8-4. Another score by South City in the fifth put a little more padding on the lead heading into the seventh.
Gomes and Kenny Anderson combined to pitch seven strong innings for South City. Anderson's only misstep came in the seventh, when Los Altos No. 2 hitter Sean Berrie lifted a solo smash to left that made the final score 9-5.

"We were flat the whole game tonight," Asunsolo said. "You would have thought they were up 13-2 the whole game. They were only up a couple runs, but we were flat from start to finish."