Jul 2, 2008

Foster City stars roll again

Highlanders' hurlers struggle with control

By John Reid / Daily News Staff Writer

Foster City's Brendan Toy swung at a 2-2 pitch in Tuesday night's Little League District 52 11-and-12 year-old All-Stars Tournament game against the Redwood City Highlanders at Middlefield Ballpark. Toy's low liner in the top of the fourth inning hung on a rope, the ball zooming over the right-field fence toward nearby Mitchell Park.

For the second straight D-52 game, Foster City toyed with the opposition, dancing past the Highlanders 17-4. Foster City has scored 33 runs in its first two games, an average of 16.5 runs per game. The Highlanders were outhit 13-4.

"Foster City played well," Highlanders manager Mark Spini said. "Our pitchers had trouble throwing strikes. They're real good when they're on. Foster City is a real good team."

For its reward, Foster City rests until Saturday when it tangles with San Mateo American in a winners-bracket game at Middlefield Ballpark at 9 a.m. The Highlanders head to the losers bracket, tackling Belmont/Redwood Shores on Thursday at Palo Alto's Hoover Park at 5:30 p.m.

Four Highlanders pitchers combined to walk nine Foster City batters and hit three others. Five of those walks came in the first inning when Foster City tallied four runs while sending 10 batters to the plate. Christian Santos delivered a line drive single to center for one run. Santos went on to have a 3-RBI day with three hits, including a double while playing only half the game.

Foster City made it 8-0 in the second, scoring four runs on just one hit. Drew Botta's fly ball to right was dropped for an error as one run scored. Stephen Hasagawa's infield grounder scored another run.

Highlanders fans had something to cheer about in the bottom of the second inning as their favorite team scored all of its runs, albeit three of them were unearned. Joey Shimono singled to right to lead off the inning, then Brian Spini followed with a bad-hop single off the second baseman's glove. After a passed ball moved the runners up, Matt Smith's grounder was booted for one of two Foster City errors in the inning. Matt Mazzoni's single to left scored two runs with Mazzoni moving up to second base on a throwing error. Ryan McSwain's booming double to right-center field off reliever JJ Monte scored Mazzoni.

Monte, however, settled down, retiring 10 straight hitters over the next 3 1-3 innings to pick up the victory. Not that he needed it, but Monte got more support as he went along. Toy's solo shot, his 12th homer of the year, gave Foster City a 10-4 lead. Dominic Filice, a jitterbug on the bases, walked with the bases loaded for another run. Filice scored twice on wild pitches and drove in two runs on the evening. Jason Lock's sky ball to left field in the sixth inning barely cleared the wall for a two-run home run to end Foster City's scoring.

"We hit the ball well," Toy said. "That's what we do best."

"We're pretty balanced," Foster City manager Rick Kelly said. "We collapsed a little in that one inning, but I was happy with the way we played. We ran the bases well and played well, offensively."

Foster City and Hillsborough played in the championship game in the D-52 11-year-old tourney last year and in the D-52 9-and-10-year-old all-star tournament two years ago.

"It's anyone's tournament," Kelly said. "We have as good as chance as anyone to win it."



E-mail John Reid at jreid@dailynewsgroup.com.



Foster City 441 215 - 17 13 2

RC Highlanders 040 000 - 4 4 3

Santos, Monte (2), Hasagawa (6), Whitman (6) and Botta, Carreon (3); Shimono, Smith (2), Mazzoni (5), Spini (6) and Brito. WP-Monte. LP-Shimono. 2B - Santos, Lock, Hasagawa (FC); McSwain (RCH). HR - Lock, Toy (FC). 3 hits - Santos (FC). 2 hits - Lock, Toy, Kelly, Whitman (FC); Shimono (RCH). 3 RBI - Santos (FC). 2 RBI - Filice, Lock, Botta (FC); Mazzoni (RCH).