The A’s saved the best for last in more ways than one in their
8-0 victory over the Rockies on Saturday, en route to their third
consecutive San Benito Babe Ruth league championship.
By Greg Chapman Staff Writer
Hollister – The A’s saved the best for last in more ways than one in their 8-0 victory over the Rockies on Saturday, en route to their third consecutive San Benito Babe Ruth league championship.
Justin Terrill, who stands 6’5″, had only pitched two innings for the A’s the whole season, but had a six inning, two hit performance that dominated the championship game.
“The trademark in our sucess is pitching and defense,” said A’s manager, Steve Ferranti.
Terrill, the best pitcher on the team, wasn’t needed on the mound during the regular season after joining the team for the last 12 games following his high school season.
Still, Terrill had seven strikeouts, threw only 77 pitches and faced only 20 batters.
The A’s used 14 of their 15 players as pitchers, but Anthony Alvarez and Dillon DiNapoli started the majority of games and won 75 percent of their 20 games. Alvarez was 10-0 in 33 innings and DiNapoli was 5-0 in 26 innings.
The Rockies didn’t get their first hit until the fourth inning, when third baseman Issak Ramos hit a clean single to left field. The only other hit in the game by the Rockies occured in the sixth inning when Wayne Urbina beat out a ball that bounced over the pitcher’s mound and then died out for an infield single.
The A’s only faced 24 batters the entire game, three above the minimum, and runners didn’t get past second base because of good defense.
On a Terrill strikeout in the third inning, catcher Justin Schlie made a nice strike’em out, throw’em out play, catching a third strike then firing back down the line to first baseman David Alvarez, who tagged the runner out attemting to get back to the bag.
In the fourth inning, Terrill picked off a runner attempting to steal second base, and David Alvarez, who moved to catcher in the sixth inning, did the same on a 1-1 count after the ball rolled away, but with a slow jump the runner was meat.
It didn’t hurt that the A’s were just as good, if not better offensively.
On the season the A’s averaged 10.7 runs per game, scoring 235 runs on the season.
The A’s jumped out to the early lead, scoring three runs in the first inning on a couple of base hits.
After getting on with a single, Chad Whitehead stole second and Terrill, who was walked in his next two at-bats, brought Whitehead in with a RBI single.
With two out and two on, DiNapoli, batting in the seventh spot, brought in two runs with a single.
Four more runs were tacked on in the fourth aided by two errors, pushing the lead to 8-0 and that was all they needed.
DiNapoli took the mound in the seventh and two Rockies got aboard off a hit by pitch and walk, but no hits were allowed.
The game ended with two runners on base and one out, when a ball was hit to third base and Schlie stepped on third and threw the ball to first base to end the game.
Ferranti said, “it was our best performance of this year,” but added, “it’s one of the few times we’ve had all our players.”
On the A’s roster there are six high school players who could not compete until their school seasons had ended, so the A’s went with only nine in the beginning and depended on them heavily.
Four 13-year-old’s got their first experience playing in a larger size field and they got a lot of playing time.
“It was a great experience for them to play all the time because it’s not normal on most Babe Ruth teams,” Ferranti said. “It will carryover next year, they’ll be the team leaders.”
The leaders of this year’s team were the 15-year-old’s, who made sure the club wouldn’t lose again after coming back from their high school season.
Watching their teammates from the stands, the high-school players put peer-pressure on their fellow A’s teammates to do their best while they were unable to play. That way they could have a strong record to build upon when they returned.
The A’s ended the year with 14 straight victories and finished the regular season 19-1.
“They always played their best in the playoffs, especially in the championship game,” Ferranti said. “They’re just a special bunch of 15-year-old’s. The bigger the game, the better the performance, that’s just the way they’ve always been.”
The A’s combined record of 58-2 over the last three seasons is believed to be unequaled in the fifty year history of the San Benito Babe Ruth league.
“We have a very unique bunch, in that people don’t understand how we got a team with this much talent,” Ferranti said. “I don’t understand it myself, people passed them up. I always picked last.”
Ferranti acknowledges that the team couldn’t have been so successful over the last three years without talent, but winning teams draft last every year to get the best players, so the league is not set up for one team to be so dominant.
“I’ve been fortunate to have terrific parents and terrific kids,” Ferranti said.
He said that the players were all very competitive, even amongst each other, feeding off challenges from one another. No one liked to lose.
Ferranti recalled several one-run games that the A’s won because they refused to lose.
“They’re a strong group and they played that way,” Ferranti said.
Obviously, the more games you win the harder it is, but Ferranti said, “they just look at it as a challenge. It didn’t bother them, they just wanted to play and wanted to win.”
The parents support was also a reason for the success of the team. Families would go out together each year on trips to San Francisco Giants games.
Coaches John Whitehead, Chad’s father, and Tim Furtado have also been important on the great run, with Furtado coming back to coach the kids even though last year was his son’s last season with the team. Ferranti said both have been outstanding.
Ferranti has never had a team have this much success in his years of coaching, however, he’s glad the team did lose a couple because he said it’s nerve-racking trying to coach an undefeated team.
“It’s gratifying that all their hard work has paid off, and has paid off for the last three years,” Ferranti said. “This is the best team I’ve coached in youth sports by far.”
2007 Babe Ruth Champion A’s Roster:
Anthony Alvarez, David Alvarez, Manny Bueno, Adrian Diaz, Dillon DiNapoli, Adrian Garcia, Mark Hurley, Emmett King, Andre Lucas, Troy Luna, Jake Moeller, Justin Schlie, Nick Stephens, Justin Terrill, Chad Whitehead
Other players involved in A’s 3-year run:
Adrian Perez (2005-06), Bret Furtado (2005-06), Armando Lerma (2005-06), Ryan Wiltse (2005), Matt Hamilton (2005), Jeff Jones (2005-06), Sebastian Cathirell (2005)
