It wasn’t an artistic masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but at this point in the season, style points don’t count for much.
That’s why the Los Gatos Little League 12-and-under All Star team felt satisfaction after pulling away for a 10-4 win over Cambrian Park in the final pool game on July 3 at Baggerly Field. The victory gave Los Gatos a perfect 3-0 mark in south pool play, earning it the No. 1 seed. It will play the North No. 2 seed—Quito/Saratoga—on July 9 in the semifinals.
Los Gatos led 3-2 entering the bottom of the fourth inning before pulling away against Cambrian Park. In the pivotal home half of the fourth, Los Gatos received run-scoring doubles from Kaden Khalipa and Luke Fischer. Barrett Laubach scored the other run on a wild pitch. In fact, Los Gatos scored five of its 10 runs directly off of a Cambrian Park error or wild pitch.
Oftentimes, it’s the team that makes the fewest mistakes that ends up winning, a message Los Gatos has taken to heart.
“That’s what we keep telling the kids, that if we make less mistakes, we’ll come out on top,” Los Gatos manager Russ Laubach said. “If we put pressure on the other team, then they’ll probably make more mistakes. Our message is, don’t try too hard, don’t try to hit the ball so far, don’t do too much. Just do your job and do the little things. Those little things will stack up and then the outcome is looking good in our favor.”
Slick-fielding shortstop Daiden Christian made a spectacular play to end the game, backhanding a ball deep in the hole and in one continuous motion throwing the ball to first base for the out.
Los Gatos cruised to victories in its first two games, outscoring Branham Hills and San Jose American by a combined margin of 22-2. However, Los Gatos had to dig deeper to top Cambrian Park. Laubach said the final score was a bit misleading.
“It felt like a 3-2 game,” he said. “This was definitely more of a grind, which was great. We kind of needed it. You want the team to battle and that’s what they had to do. They stayed at it, kept their heads in the game and eventually we got ahead.”
Parsa Schmidt started and allowed two runs and six hits over four innings, striking out eight. Dean Drew tossed the final two innings to close things out.
“Parsa pitched great, but he definitely had to grind through some things,” Laubach said. “We were able to play great defense and had great baserunning, which always helps.”
Barrett Laubach ripped a double leading off the bottom of the first, and later reached on a walk. Christian reached on a pair of walks, and Schmidt reached base in all three of his plate appearances, getting hit by a pitch twice and drawing a walk. Los Gatos started practicing on June 1, but Russ Laubach and his staff have coached most of the players since they were 8 years old—and some since T-ball.
“They’re a really fun group of kids,” he said. “They’re all really good friends and have a fun time, but when it’s time to turn it on and focus, they do. They listen to us well, practice hard and they don’t get too up or too down. They’ve really come together as a team, and they all do their job and battle.”
Besides the players already mentioned, the LGLL 12U roster includes Andy Gwynn, Chase Bratten, Eli Spiler, Jake Munro, Leo Fan, Liam McDonald, and assistant coaches Justin Christian and Brad Bratten.
Note: The LGLL Intermediate (13U) All Star team won the Section 5 Tournament on July 7, defeating Sunnyvale 5-3 to cap an undefeated run. Los Gatos opened up the tournament with a 6-0 victory over Sunnyvale followed by a 19-7 win over Santa Cruz to put itself in the championship round. Sunnyvale then won two elimination contests to earn a rematch with Los Gatos, but needed to beat Los Gatos twice to take the title. Instead, Los Gatos closed things out with another vintage performance. Los Gatos moves on to the NorCal Tournament in Marysville on Saturday.
