Gilroy’s Junior Majors and 8- and 9-Year-Old All-Stars Fall
Short in Final Games
8- and 9-year-old team suffers 10-1 defeat against Aptos
By Josh Koehn Sports Editor
Gilroy – It wasn’t a storybook ending for the Gilroy National 8- and 9-year old All-Star team. The team’s final goal was denied. But overall, the journey was a success as the kids had a good time getting there.
Playing the second leg of a championship game against Aptos Tuesday (the team lost the first leg on Monday 8-3), Gilroy just couldn’t muster enough runs in a 10-1 defeat. The sensational right arm of Braxton Peterson deserves much of the credit, or blame depending on your point of view.
Peterson struck out six batters in 5 and 2/3 innings and gave up only one hit.
That hit was made by Chad Hartman, who got on base with a single before scoring on a RBI fielder’s choice by Dillon McFarland.
Gilroy manager Brent Drysdale said the kids did everything the coaching staff asked of them all tournament, and even gave something back.
“They all kept their heads up,” Drysdale said. “It was a great coaching experience, overall probably my best coaching experience.”
Drysdale was firm in his assessment that the kids played their hearts out.
“Every kid gave a 110 percent and excelled getting to know the game,” Drysdale said. “They’ve all great attitudes. You can tell it comes from their parents, there has been great support all around.
Gilroy player Eric Ornduff agreed, saying the team was a success by making it so far in the District 39 All-Stars tournament.
“I thought we were pretty good,” Ornduff said. ” It was a fun team, it was fun playing.”
Junior Majors lose 8-4 to Lincoln Glen
By Greg Chapman Sports Editor
Gilroy – The Gilroy Junior Majors resiliency couldn’t do the job, as the team went down in defeat to Lincoln Glen 8-4 Tuesday night at Gilroy Sports Complex.
For the second consecutive night, the sixth inning proved to be the most pivotal in the game. But on this night, the sixth inning was unkind to Gilroy.
“It just wasn’t our night,” manager Jay Palma said. “The more we battled back, the more mistakes we made.”
Palma said errors and mistakes were costly, and in the sixth inning Gilroy did themselves in. One botched ground ball plus two walks with the bases loaded were huge, giving the visitors three runs and pushing the lead to 8-4.
In order to win a tournament of this caliber, Palma said pitching is a big necessity, and happens to be one of Gilroy’s strong suits, if not its best. But, sore arms for Gilroy’s aces caused a pitching carousel in the sixth. In the inning, Gilroy put three different players on the mound.
After a rough first inning, where Lincoln Glen scored four runs off three singles, Gilroy did battle back.
Thomas Harrington once again was a bright spot for Gilroy scoring a run and collecting a RBI.
In the second inning, Harrington scored Gilroy’s first run, coming home from third after a high pop fly was dropped by the shortstop. Gilroy continued their comeback in the fourth, with runners scoring from second and third on an RBI single cutting the lead in half.
Harrington came through again in the fifth, smashing a ball to the left field fence. The hit closed the gap to one with Tim Goulet scoring from third and brought the most noise from the dugout all game. The team seemed destined for a major comeback.
However, the disastrous sixth killed any chance of the two teams playing again on Wednesday for all the marbles.
Although Palma figures Gilroy High School will have quite a team in a few years, he believes he had the best team in the tournament.
“This was our year,” Palma said. “This was it.”
