he Silicon Valley Vipers
– a local 18-under travel baseball team – overcame a slow start
in the USSSA Concord Easter Qualifier to win its fifth tournament
championship.
CONCORD – The Silicon Valley Vipers – a local 18-under travel baseball team – overcame a slow start in the USSSA Concord Easter Qualifier to win its fifth tournament championship.
“The team kept their heads up and played with a lot of heart this weekend,” said skipper Nick Pusateri, whose Vipers are sponsored by B&D Plumbing. “Coming back to win after losing the first two games was a true test of our team’s character.”
The Vipers lost their first two games of West pool play before recovering with a big 13-1 win over the Atwater Slammers. Balz-Out, the Slammers and the Vipers were all 1-2 in pool play. On the basis of least runs allowed, the Vipers were seeded No. 2 and were pitted against the undefeated top seed from the East pool – the Concord Free Agents.
The Free Agents scored in the bottom of the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead, but the Vipers struck for two runs in the second on a double by Tyler Kiefer. The Free Agents scored single runs in the second to tie and third to take a 3-2 lead.
The Vipers fought back – scoring two more in the fourth frame on hits by Brett Fuller and Kiefer; two in the fifth on Fuller’s double; and two more in the sixth on a single by Nick Zapata and Mike Valentine’s homer run for an 8-3 advantage.
The Free Agents threatened in the bottom of the sixth with two runs until Nicholas Pusateri turned a line drive to shortstop into a double play to end the inning and seal the 8-5 Vipers’ victory.
The win advanced the Vipers into the championship game against the Starmakers – who defeated the Vacaville Heat in their semifinal game.
Halfway through the scheduled six-inning game, the Starmakers led 7-3. In the top of the fifth, the Vipers scored three runs on a triple by Fuller and a double by Aaron Cimino sandwiched around walks and two Starmaker errors to close the gap to 7-6.
After holding the Starmakers scoreless in the bottom of the fifth, the Vipers took the lead with two runs in the sixth on consecutive two-out hits by Fuller, Mark Harris and Mike Valentine. But the Starmakers tied the score in the bottom half of the inning with a pair of doubles.
The teams then exchanged runs in the seventh inning.
In the eighth inning, the Vipers put the game away with eight runs and pitcher Aaron Cimino put the Starmakers down in order to complete the 17-9 win. The Viper player-of-the-game was Brett Fuller – who was 6-for-6 with two RBIs and four runs-scored.
