The championship fever that permeated Cupertino High School’s spring sports programs proved contagious as 10 Pioneers baseball players carried the victory bug into the District 44 senior and junior all-star competitions.
Cupertino had four varsity team champions–including baseball–and individual winners in swimming and track and field during the recent spring season.
The Tri-Cities Little League’s senior all-stars, featuring seven players and one coach from the Cupertino program, and Santa Clara Homestead’s juniors, led by a pair of Pioneers, earned District 44 championships and advanced to Section 5 play.
Senior all-stars
Strong pitching performances from 6-foot-3 right-hander Ander Hersh and timely hitting by shortstop Zach Crawford were big keys for Tri-Cities, as it won the first and third games of a best-of-three playoff against SC Homestead to capture the D44 flag in the 15-16 age bracket.
Hersh (Cupertino) and relief pitcher Chris Anderson (Monta Vista) combined to pitch a 6-0 shutout in the series opener at Washington Park in Santa Clara, but the SC Homestead squad evened the series with a 12-6 triumph at Kennedy Middle School. Then, in the District 44 decider on June 27, a three-run rally in the bottom of the sixth gave T-C a 6-5, comeback victory, sending T-C to the Section 5 tournament.
Crawford, a first-team all-league selection for the Cupertino frosh-soph team that finished one game out of first place, showed his mettle during the D44 championship game. He delivered three hits, two in clutch situations with his team behind.
Down three runs in the fifth, Crawford pulled T-C a run closer when his second two-bagger of the game knocked in Jason Koontz, who had singled.
Crawford then spearheaded the decisive rally in the sixth. After Koontz reached first on a wild pitch third strike and stole second, Crawford chased him home with an RBI single. Crawford scored the tying run on a triple by catcher Matthew Kimball, who eventually hustled home with the tiebreaker on another wild pitch.
Hersh blanked Homestead in the sixth and the seventh, closing out a complete-game 6-hitter. In all, Hersh struck out eight batters and pitched five scoreless innings.
T-C took a 2-0 lead on solo runs the second and third, but SC Homestead reached Hersh for two runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth to go in front 5-2.
Left fielder Justin Chow came up with a crucial double play to end the fifth and keep SC Homestead’s lead from growing. After catching a fly ball for the second out, Chow fired the ball home to Kimball, who tagged the oncoming runner out at the plate.
Hersh scored the first run of the game on Tae Prununski’s RBI single, and Matt Kelly’s RBI hit plated Crawford an inning later.
Hersh and Kelly, both second-team all-leaguers this spring, joined Crawford on the Cupertino frosh-soph, along with and Prununski, Chow and first baseman Lucas Banks.
“Many of the players have played Little League, travel ball and now high school for many years,” said Tri-Cities manager Shawn Kimball, who has worked with many of the players for much of that time together. “They played well together for the most part. It was like a two-month extension to the high school season.”
Kelly, a 6-foot-4 right-hander who pitched the first 5 2/3 innings of a combined no-hitter with Hersh in the regular season against Branham Hills, started the second all-star game, but was injured in the first inning by a line drive to the mouth.
Although T-C replaced Kelly on the mound with Jarrod Kopczynski, a member of Cupertino’s varsity champs during the high school season, Kelly’s loss was too much to overcome.
T-C led 3-2 after two innings, but made several errors as Homestead went ahead with three in the top of the third and gradually pulled away for the 12-6 win. Banks had a single and double to pace the T-C offense, but Homestead rapped four doubles, including one by Austin Mattox (Cupertino).
The SC Homestead seniors included two other Cupertino High players, Joel Banholzer (varsity) and Jacob Banholzer (frosh-soph).
Payam Salabi, a Cupertino student who didn’t play high school ball, and Dylan Robinson, a Homestead frosh-soph player, also were championship team members for T-C. Coaches included Joe Tichner and Niko Banks, the older brother of Lucas and a ‘Tino varsity player.
T-C started strong in the sectional tourney at Ida Price Middle School in San Jose. The local champions beat District 59 champ Santa Teresa 7-5 in the opener on July 1. Crawford paced Tri-Cities hitters with two hits, including a home run. Hersh pitched the first 5 2/3 innings to earn the mound decision, and Anderson worked the final four outs to get a save.
In its next game on July 2, T-C led most of the way but bowed 6-5 against District 12 kingpin and eventual Section 5 champ Branham Hills.
After the Fourth of July weekend, Tri-Cities’ post-season run ended with an 11-1, short-handed loss in a rematch with Santa Teresa. Crawford was absent due to travel in Denmark, Banks was unable to play due to injury and Kelly still was feeling the effects from being hit in the D44 tourney.
Junior all-stars
Cupertino High frosh-soph players Icko Iben and Josh Amick played major roles for Santa Clara Homestead, which was undefeated in four games to claim the D44 crown.
Iben twirled a nifty 63-pitch shutout and Amick belted a two-run double in a 3-0 victory over Los Altos in the semi-final round on July 2.
Six days later, in the championship game, Iben pitched the first two innings of a 21-0 spanking of Cupertino National. A 12-run second inning by SC Homestead sealed the fate for Cupertino National in a game called by the mercy rule after 4 1/2 innings. It was the third game in three days for CN.
Homestead had 17 hits in four innings. Tony Rodriguez and Jordan Banholzer, who will who will join the Cupertino High program next spring, combined for five. Rodriguez collected three hits and three RBI’s, while Banholzer had two and two.
In the Section 5 tournament July 16-21 at McKelvey Park in Mountain View, the D44 champs finished 0-2. They dropped an 11-8 opener to District 9 winner Ferrasci Park of Salinas and an 8-5 decision to Gilroy, the District 59 champion.
Cupertino National finished second in the eight-team District 44 tourney with a 4-2 record, reaching the championship round with four wins in a row. The last two wins came against Cupertino American-Moreland, a 7-0 forfeit, and Los Altos 7-6 in the elimination bracket final.
CA-Moreland won on the field 9-2, behind the collective pitching effort of Johnnie Teng, Justin DeCarlo, Tatsumi Eng, Chris Civilikas, and Robby Cordova, who combined for a 3-hitter, but Cupertino National advanced when its protest to CA-Moreland’s paperwork was upheld.
Jake Amicarelli sparked a three-run first with a lead-off double and scored on Eng’s infield hit, and a two-run single by Civilikas keyed a five-run fourth, but CA-Moreland’s season ended.
The next evening CN scored a 7-6 victory over Los Altos. Tied 5-5 after the regulation seven innings, Arjun Ghuman banged a bases-loaded single through the right side of the infield, knocking in two runs. CN then allowed just one run in the bottom of the extra frame and hung on to avenge a huge loss earlier in the tourney.
