Wednesday Jul 23

Comeback ends with Alpine as champions

By Simi Lee / Bay Area News Group Correspondent

Alpine/West Menlo coach Mark Martella knew it was going to be a weird game when he lost the coin toss and his Tracy counterpart immediately chose to be the visiting team on Sunday. The unusual move came back to bite Tracy as Alpine/West Menlo rallied in the 10th inning to prevail, 10-9, to capture the Little League 9-and-10-year-old Section 3 championship at the Jefferson School Fields in Tracy.

It was Alpine/West Menlo's fourth extra-inning postseason win and perhaps the most remarkable win for a team that improved to 10-1.

Alpine/West Menlo advances to the 12-team Divisional Championships, the top level for 9-and-10-year-olds, and plays in Campbell on Friday.

Tracy struck first and hard against Alpine/West Menlo, racking up a 9-3 lead in the fourth inning.

It appeared Tracy was going to extend its lead when it got runners on first and third with one out in the third. But Alpine/West Menlo catcher Jared Lucian threw to third baseman Justin Galvin to pick the runner off. Before the trailing Tracy runner got to second, center fielder Evan Easton bolted behind the base, took the throw from Lucian and made another pickoff for a rally-killing double play.

"That double play was a strange play and it just seemed like it was on par with the rest of the game," Martella said. "The kids on this team are just unbelievable. They just don't give up. They didn't let the tension of the game get to them, and they just kept going and kept pushing."

Trailing by six runs heading into the bottom of the sixth, its final at-bat, Alpine/West Menlo rallied to tie. The team combined three walks with hits from Nick Stoner, Galvin, Lucian and a two-run double from Rylan Pade.

Reliever Justin Harmon took the mound and held Tracy scoreless for the next four innings. In the bottom of the 10th, Lucian cracked a one-out single and scored the winning run on an RBI double from Matt Hennefarth.