By Jason Eisenberg
jeisenberg@riverdalepress.com

A successful and exciting 2009 summer season came to an abrupt end last week for the Kingsbridge Knights 12-and-under little league travel team, with a 5-1 loss to West Lewis County, Washington, in the Cal Ripken World Series quarterfinal round.

The result was something of an upset, considering West Lewis County had won only one of its four previous games in the pool play round.

“They [Washington] just got hot at the right time, but it also kind of makes the loss even tougher knowing that we had so many chances in that game and it could have been us there at the end,” said Kingsbridge head coach Mike Navarro. “But, it was still a great experience and something that all of us — the coaches and the players — will remember for the rest of our lives.”

West Lewis followed up their victory against Kingsbridge with two more wins and the championship.

Washington jumped out to a big lead early in the contest, smashing a pair of homers and scoring a total of five runs in the first three innings. The Knights would get their lone run of the game in the bottom of the third, when a bases-loaded walk to first baseman Lenny Ortiz brought Josh Fisher home. However, the next two Kingsbridge batters would strike out, leaving three runners stranded.

Unfortunately, this became a recurring theme for the Knights throughout the rest of the evening.

Kingsbridge ace Adam De la Cruz took the mound to replace starter Drew Semler and kept his team in the game with yet another brilliant pitching performance, shutting out the opposition for three-plus innings, while also striking out nine batters.

However, the usually clutch Knights offense could not find a way to get a key hit. The team loaded the bases in both the fifth and sixth innings but couldn’t bring any more runs home. In total, Kingsbridge left a whopping 12 runners stranded on base in the contest.