Giants grab first Little League City Championship

American League champs beat Valley's best in final game

June 28, 2006

The Bay Bridge Garage Giants caught not only the baseball, but also history Sunday afternoon, defeating Whitman Insurance, 4-1, in the finals of Petaluma's first City Championship Tourn-ament.

The Giants, champions of the Petaluma American Little League, and Whitman's Green Machine, champion of the Petaluma Valley Little League, were the last two teams standing from what started as an 18-team tournament involving every Major Little League team in the city.

The Giants prevailed in a championship game befitting its historic nature by playing outstanding defense in support of pitcher Brenden Mooney. Mooney allowed just four hits, but had only two strikeouts as his team made all the routine plays, and several on the spectacular side, in turning back to normally hard-hitting Green Machine.

The Giants didn't do a lot of scoring themselves against Whitman pitchers Scott Mayer and Scott Torres, but did more than enough to support their superb defense.

Kevin Brill drove home a run for the Giants with a force out in the second inning. A run scored on Trevor Shine's sacrifice fly in the third inning. Consecutive singles by Adam Thomason, Alyssa Byrne and Colton Campbell brought home a run in the fourth and a final run scored on hits by Austin Wilson, Josh Zaret and Shine in the fifth.

That was more than enough for Mooney and the tough Giant defense, anchored by Kevin Brill at first, Byrne at second, Paul Proctor at third and Shine at shortstop.

In the fourth inning, the Giants frustrated Whitman with a spectacular double play from Proctor at third to Brill at first and home to Zaret to cut down a potential Green Machine run.

Whitman did not yield without a battle. Mayer pitched well, and the Valley League champions played pretty fair defense of their own.

Whitman was still battling right up to the end. In its sixth and last at bats, Whitman put its first two runners on base when Torres walked and Weston Bryan slugged an off-field single to left.

A pair of force outs got a run home, but that was the end, with standout infield play from Shine, Byrne and Alexander Eliades accenting the Giants' city championship.

Whitman Insurance hit its way into the championship game, by pounding the Yankees from the American League, 11-1, and eliminating the Elks from the National League, 14-3. The Elks defeated the National's First Security, 11-1, before running into Whitman.

Whitman hit hard and often in the semi-finals against the Elks, scoring four runs in each of the first two innings and building an 8-0 lead before the Elks rallied for their three runs in the fourth inning.

Weston and Tommy Kearney each had three hits in that assault with Kearney and Chris Hall contributing key doubles. Hall's two-bagger in the first inning cleared loaded bases. He finished with four RBIs for the game. Torres, Mayer and Kurt Walsh each had two hits.

The Elks, champions of the National League, scored their runs in the fourth inning, with Dyan Maggio-Hucek, J.J. Marsh, Tommie Kazarian and Clay Swanson supplying the hits. Swanson had the big blow, a clutch two-out, two-run double.

Meanwhile, the Giants really had to battle to reach the championship showdown. First they had to out-slug surprising EMG from the National League, 10-0. Then, in the semi-finals, it took seven innings for them to beat the Henris Roofing Reds, 2-1. The Reds reached the semi-finals with a wild 11-10 win over the Angels from the American League.

The semi-final game was an exciting match between the American League's top two teams.

Both teams scored in the fourth inning. The Giants went long for their run, with Mooney skying a home run just over the center field fence. The Reds countered by scratching out a run on a hit batter, a walk, an infield error and Austin Weingand's clutch single.

That was that until the seventh when Colton Campbell singled, advanced on two successive sacrifice flies and rode home on Eliades' big hit.

In the last of the seventh, Mooney set the Reds down with three straight strikeouts. He had seven whiffs in three strong innings of relief work.

The Elks rallied from three runs down to defeat the Reds, 4-3, in the consolation game for third place.

The Reds built a three-run lead on two home runs, but the Elks fought back with a run in the fourth inning, and two to tie on Maggio-Hucek's clutch single in the fifth.

In the sixth inning, Tommie Kazarian hustled a hit into a double, sliding underneath the tag at second base, stole third and scored on Swanson's infield single.