THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606050139
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALAN HUBBARD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 43 lines
Led by Kurt Isenberg, the tournament's most valuable player, the Tidewater Drillers marched to the championship of the American Athletic Union 14-and-under state baseball tournament at Churchland High School.
Isenberg, the team's regular first baseman as well as its ace lefthanded pitcher, notched two victories as the Drillers won four consecutive games to win the state title last weekend and advance to the AAU National Championship Tournament, Aug. 2-10 in Kingsport, Tenn.
An 8th-grader at Lynnhaven Middle School, Isenberg threw four innings of scoreless relief in the final, an 11-8 triumph over the Peninsula Athletics on Sunday. The Athletics also a earned a trip to the AAU championship tournament.
Entering with no one out in the fourth inning, during which the Athletics had scored six runs to trim an eight-run deficit to 10-8, Isenberg allowed just two hits and two walks and struck out two to stall the Peninsula comeback and give Tidewater its seventh straight victory. This included a 3-0 record in the preliminary round, held May 25-27.
Less than 48 hours earlier, Isenberg fanned 11 in seven innings in a 4-1 victory over the Staunton Comets in the first game of double-elimination championship play. The Drillers took the lead in the fifth when Steven Han drove in Victor Notarfrancesco, who had tripled, with the go-ahead run.
Comprised mainly of players from Virginia Beach, the Drillers also rolled to a 16-2 victory over the Prince William Gators before trouncing South Hampton Roads other team in the competition, the Virginia Blasters, 11-1, to gain the final.
Including preliminary pool play, Isenberg finished 3-0 with 20 strikeouts in 18 innings. He also hit .278 - .333 in the championship round - and scored 12 runs.
The MVP received plenty of offensive support from teammates Han, who batted
Peninsula reached the final behind the two-hit pitching of Alan Snodgrass in a 2-0 victory over the Blasters in the losers bracket semifinal.
The third-place Blasters, who bowed out in a 2-0 loss to Peninsula in the losers bracket semifinal, and fourth-place Staunton, which also was eliminated by the Athletics, advance to the AAU's National Invitational Tournament in Cocoa Beach, Fla., also set for Aug. 2-10. by CNB