5 Errors Spell End to Dream of San Pedro Little Leaguers

A childhood dream ended in a game of giveaway Thursday afternoon when a few young players from San Pedro learned about old momentum.

It also took good off-speed pitches from Trumbull, Conn., pitcher Andy Paul and five errors by Eastview Little League of San Pedro to knock the Californians out of championship contention, 6-3, in the Little League World Series.

Now all that is left for the Eastview All-Stars is this afternoon’s consolation game, while Trumbull represents the United States in the Little League World Series on Saturday against Taiwan, a 13-0 victor over Venezuela.

San Pedro fans reflected on the bizarre turn of events Thursday, which saw San Pedro jump in front 2-0 in the first inning on back-to-back home runs by Tim Harper and Gary Sloan. But the roof caved in when Connecticut scored five runs in its half of the inning, using only one hit.

“It’s been a long, strange road,” said Bill Sulentor, whose son, Joe, hit a solo shot in the second inning, the last run San Pedro mustered.

Sulentor’s feelings summed up the way most of the redshirted Eastview fans felt as they milled around the white picket fence outside the players rooms on a breezy, much cooler Susquehanna Valley afternoon.

Actually, San Pedro did not play well in either of its games here, although it banged out 14 hits in its opener Wednesday. On that day these South Bay folks could have blamed hot, steamy weather for their team’s poor performance, which included five walks by pitcher Harper. Southern Californians usually wilt in that kind of weather, and the team battled itself as much as it did its Southern opponent. Its effort was still good enough to beat Tampa, Fla., 12-5.

The wind changed to a cool northern breeze out of Canada late Wednesday night, and for Thursday’s game only a few puffy white clouds filled the sky. The humidity disappeared. Perfect baseball weather.

So what was it that made Eastview self-destruct? Was it the 19,800 spectators who ringed Lamade Stadium? The team committed three first-inning errors and a pair of pitchers surrendered four walks.

Boom. It was over. The team from the East Coast led, 5-2, and you could see the frustration in the eyes of the Eastview players. Their shouldered sank and, although they are not known as a vocal team in the dugout, they appeared to be mumbling to themselves.

San Pedro Manager Joe Dileva said he sensed the tension during warm-up and it showed as the team walked up from the practice field to play its game with the Eastern representative. Teams aren’t allowed to warm up long in the main stadium.

They warm up on practice fields behind Lamade, a quarter of a mile down a hill. When it’s time to play, they are marched up an asphalt walkway, past the snack bars and in view of the horde of fans. San Pedro must have felt the stares.

“When we have a bad day, we have a bad day,” Dileva said.

League President Gary Miley agreed.

“Like I told Joe, you have to put this loss in perspective. There are 5,000 Little League teams in the United States and 4,998 of them did not have a chance to play in this game.”

To the writers in the press box who could see the slumping shoulders from high atop the bleachers, momentum clearly played a vital role in the San Pedro defeat. Connecticut Coach Tom Galla also saw it.

“They seemed to get a little flat after we went ahead,” he said.

Galla credited a pitch he calls “the dart,” a change-up, with keeping Eastview hitters off guard most of the afternoon.

“It took the bat right out of their hands,” Galla said.

All San Pedro home runs were hit off fastballs thrown by Andy Paul, a power pitcher who resorted to off-speed stuff when he saw that he could not blow fastballs by the Eastview hitters.

“I used the dart about 75% of the time,” he said. “They were swinging at it before it left my hand.”

That also frustrated San Pedro, which averaged 12.5 runs a game to get here. The dart served up seven ground-ball outs (only 18 outs are needed in a six-inning Little League game). And Paul struck out the side on the junker to end the game.

“We’re like a machine,” Dileva said. “We go out to do a job and today we just ran out of gas.”

San Pedro may have run out of gas before it even played its first game, due mostly to the inordinate amount of attention the team received because of starting first baseman Victoria Brucker, the first girl to get a hit in the 50-year history of this event.

“When the pressure is big like that it hurts,” Dileva said. “They’ve tried to carry the load, but it’s hard on a lot of kids.”

All that attention affected the starting rotation for Thursday’s game. Dileva and Coach Nick Lusic considered starting Brucker at pitcher against Connecticut but opted for No. 2 pitcher Steve Williams because, according to Lusic: “Pressure really played a part in this game. It really screwed up Victoria’s head.”

Brucker went 0 for 3 Thursday. In her second at-bat there were runners on first and second with one out. Lusic said he could tell from the dugout that Brucker wanted to hit the ball out of the park, but instead she lifted a lazy fly to center. Harper was then doubled up trying to tag and advance to third base.

For some, the loss signaled a welcome end to the pressure.

“There isn’t one of them that is sad,” said Harper’s mother, Cheryl, about the attitude of the team when the game ended.

Sloan’s father, Gary, called it “a tough loss to take.”

“It’s a 3-1 game if we don’t make all those errors,” he lamented, standing outside the players dorms.

And for the rest of the redshirts that milled around the white picket fence, maybe life could get back to normal soon.

For Victoria Brucker, some of it already had. She slipped into her swim suit and, headed off to the facility’s pool.

After all, the kids these adults came to see are only 12 years old.