Menlo Atherton Little League
2009 AAA Playoffs
Bulls - Menlo Atherton Little League 2009 AAA Champions
Back row: John-Paul Gray, Griffin Kardos, Johnny Hamren, Josh Olson, Ian Rosenfeld
Front row: John Crevelt, Ryu Frank, Jake Simon, Owen Grierson, Kris Liang
Not pictured: Graham Hughes and Jack Wolf
Coaches: Paul Gray and John Crevelt
The Bulls beat the Scrappers 14-1 to secure the 2009 Menlo-Atherton Little League AAA championship Sunday, June 7 at Tom Harrison Field in Menlo Park, CA. The evenly matched teams entered the double elimination playoff tournament as the #1 seed (Bulls) and the #3 seed (Scrappers). The Bulls narrowly edged the Scrappers in both of their regular season match-ups, 10 to 9 and 17 to 14.
Leading up to the final championship game, the teams had met twice in the tournament. The Scrapper’s captured the winner’s bracket with an impressive 14-9 victory on June 2nd. After clawing their way through the loser’s bracket the Bulls prevailed 14 to 9 against the Scrappers in a very tight game on Saturday June 6th to force a do-or-die finale.
In the season finale, the Bulls jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first which held until the third inning. Evan King pitching for the Scrappers settled down and pitched strong in the second and third innings after a shaky start. Kris Liang, for the Bulls, was equally impressive giving up only a single run through 4 innings against the always potent Scrapper’s lineup.
Each team eked out a single run in the third inning and the scored remained 5 to 1 until the top of the sixth inning. Walks and timely hitting enabled the Bulls to break open the game with 9 runs. Ryu Frank closed out the bottom of the inning without allowing a run giving the Bulls the victory.
For the Bulls, Ryu Frank and Kris Liang combined to allow only a single run backed by impressive defensive plays from Ian Rosenfeld at catcher, Josh Olson on a line drive at third, and John-Paul Gray on a hustle foul ball catch at first. Offensive stars for Bulls were Griffin Kardos (3 hits, 4 RBI, and scored 2 runs, John Crevelt (2 hits, 2 RBI, and scored 1 run), Ryu Frank (2 hits, 1 RBI, and scored 1 run), Johnny Hamren (1 hit, 2 RBI, and scored 1 run), and Josh Olson (2 RBI and scored 2 runs).
For the Scrappers, King and Larson pitched well early but ran out of pitches giving way to less experienced pitchers. Defensively Marco Papadoyannis had several throw outs from his backstop position and Evan King made a bang-bang catch on a screaming line drive in the sixth.
As the Bulls Coach John Crevelt put it, “These two teams epitomize little league baseball. It is a major achievement to win two games in one weekend against such a talented Scrappers’ team and coaching staff which included Charles King, Shawn Pagee, and Rick Novak.”
Menlo-Atherton Little League
2009 AAA Standings
Games Thru May16, 2009
| AAA | W | L | T | GB | STRK |
| Bulls | 5 | 0 | -- | -- | W5 |
| Thunder | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | W1 |
| Scrappers | 4 | 2 | -- | 1.5 | L1 |
| MuckDogs | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2.5 | W1 |
| MudCats | 2 | 4 | -- | 3.5 | L1 |
| Knights | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | W1 |
| RiverCats | 0 | 6 | -- | 5.5 | L6 |
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