It has seemingly become a yearly tradition for Briarwood Little League in Santa Clara, the Pirates are yet again the Champions of the major division. For the fifth year in a row the Pirates will be sailing the seas of TOCs. With a 16-1 win over the Cardinals, the Pirates now move on and will take part in the tournament of champions.
“This is my first year coaching this team and I am so impressed with the talent of these kids,” Said Pirates Head Coach Bryan Adame. “They are so great, have such great attitudes and they come to practice just wanting to enjoy the game.”
One of the staples of the Pirates in years past is the team’s depth, and this year they might even be the deepest roster yet. This season Briarwood had all their players bat during the game, a 12-player lineup rather than just nine. In Saturday’s championship game, the Pirates saw their eleventh place hitter Cruz Daily go 2-for-2 at the plate. Most Little League teams typically get their offense from just the top four or five hitters. But Daily impressed from his spot, and the biggest hit of the game arguably belonged to Lorenzo Borunda, who had a two-out, two-RBI single in the first inning to open the scoring.
“He’s my ‘Quiet Storm,’” said Adame on Daily. “He’s probably the youngest on the team, but I had a feeling he was gonna come through today and he did just that. I love this kid, he has such a passion for this game.”
“I’ve coached Lorenzo since farm, he’s one of those kids who isn’t the biggest, but he has that drive and just a great attitude,” added Adame. “He has stepped up tremendously for us this year. He had an amazing batting average this year. He batted .417 for us.”
In addition to their quality depth players, the heart of the Pirates order got cooking with the RBIs in the second inning. Number three hitter Sammy Martinez drove in two runs with a single and fifth place batter Matthew Ramirez drove in a pair with a double. Cleanup hitter Kai Imahara went 1-1 with a walk in his two at bats, but primarily stood out on the mound with six strikeouts, striking out the side in order in the bottom of the first.
This Pirate crew will now look to bring home the TOC treasure in a tough single-elimination tournament, playing the best of the best from District 44.
Over the weekend the high school sports season wrapped up for basketball. After a thrilling victory in the Quarterfinals against Palo Alto, the Santa Clara Bruins came up just a bit short in a 68-58 loss against Piedmont Hills. Wilcox would win two thrilling playoff games by just four points each, propelling them into the Division II Championship where they came up short against St. Francis 61-46.