Los Altos Town Crier » Local travel baseball team places fifth nationally

By Special to the Town Crier

Image from article Local travel baseball team places fifth nationally

The latest trend in youth sports seems to be travel teams, which play their respective sport year-round.

And the Los Altos-Mountain View area is home to one of the best 10-and-under travel baseball teams in the country.

The Arsenal Baseball Club, sponsored as a pilot program by Los Altos-Mountain View PONY Baseball for the 2002 season, recently completed its season with a 62-10 record. Since last October, the team has won nine of the 12 tournaments it entered.

The highlight of the Arsenal’s season was its fifth-place finish in the USSSA (United States Sports Specialty Association) World Series, held just outside of Las Vegas last month.

In this highly competitive national tournament, the Arsenal knocked off state champions from Kansas, Nevada and Tennessee before being eliminated in a marathon 12-inning game against the rival Pomona Titans of Southern California.

“It was an incredible baseball game,” manager Chuck Evans said. “Battling for 12 innings in 110 degree heat - needless to say, I was extremely proud of them.”

Since returning from the USSSA World Series, the Arsenal captured regional tournaments in Modesto and Manteca, outscoring its opponents by a whopping 104-8.

The core of the Arsenal team was formed from an LA-MV PONY all-star team from two seasons ago when the players were 8.

The roster includes local residents Alex Balog (first base, pitcher), Sean Barrie (shortstop, pitcher), Dennis Duran (outfield, pitcher), Chuck Evans (second base, outfield), Scott Gray (outfield, pitcher, catcher), Johnny Hidalgo (second base, outfield, pitcher) and Christopher Hoo (outfield, catcher).

Team members from neighboring cities include K.C. Carr (second base, catcher), Jamie Vega (second base, pitcher), Jordan Bredehoeft, (third base, shortstop, second base, pitcher), Mac Hess (first base, pitcher), Michael Sticklinski (first base, third base, pitcher) and Kevin Glomb (first base, pitcher).

The Arsenal plans to compete through the fall and into the next club season. The team’s ultimate goal is to capture the prestigious Cooperstown, N.Y., tournament as 12-year-olds.