Cypress Is a Loser in Opener
Manager Greg Novy and his coaching staff tried everything they could think of over the past four games to find a wake-up call for the Cypress Federal Little League team that nonetheless scored enough runs to advance to the 52nd World Series.
Cypress finally got that wake-up call, but it wasn’t the way Novy planned it.
Cypress managed only three hits and suffered its first loss of its season, 4-2, to Toms River East American of New Jersey in front of an announced crowd of 15,300.
Toms River (20-5, 2-0 in the series) moved into the driver’s seat for a berth in the United States championship game, which will be played Thursday. Cypress (17-1, 0-1) is by no means eliminated, but most likely needs to win its last two games in the best-of-three round-robin play.
“I told the kids that we aren’t out of it yet,” Novy said. “Maybe this will help us. Maybe it will get us some focus so we can get going again.
“Obviously, I have not been happy with their play. We’ve got to get back to the way we were offensively and start scoring runs. We’ve got to improve our defense. All teams have slumps, but this is not the right time to do it.”
Starting pitcher Alex Alba struck out 10 in five innings of work, but gave up a three-run home run to Gabe Gardner in the top of the fifth inning that erased a 2-0 Cypress lead.
“It’s very hard when we don’t score,” Alba said. “I can’t let the other team score and that’s hard to do all the time.”
Alba, a left-hander, staked himself to the lead with an opposite-field homer in the bottom of the fourth. He was humming along until he walked pinch-hitter Eric Campesi and a passed ball moved him to third. Alba got two strikeouts, but walked Todd Frazier.
Scott Fisher followed with an infield single to score Fisher that set the stage for Gardner.
In other games:
Greenville, N.C. 3, Jenison, Mich. 1--Tar Heel Little League opened by handing the Central Regional champion its second consecutive defeat in the U.S. bracket. Jenison lost its opener, 13-9, on Sunday to Toms River, N.J.
Langley, Canada 4, Guadalupe, Mexico 3--Jeff Duda, who played for Surrey, Canada when it did not win a game in the 1997 series, pitched the final three innings for the British Columbia team and did not give up a run, striking out eight in the International bracket game. The loss dealt a severe blow to the chances of the defending titlists from Mexico (0-2), who lost their opener to Kashima, Japan, 4-2, on Sunday. It was Canada’s opener.
Kashima, Japan 10, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia 3--The Far East champions (2-0), bidding to become the first Japanese team since 1976 to win the series title, scored seven runs in the third inning and established themselves as the front-runner in the International bracket.