Big Hearted Win, 7-6 vs. South Oakland!

This was the most exciting game to date, and maybe the sweetest win. Our guys were down 6-1 after 4 innings, but not out.

Michael Brewer got the win and shut down South Oakland's hitters in relief, holding them to only 2 hits in 3-2/3 innings pitched with 4 strikeouts.

Offensively, we had 8 hits, 10 walks and 2 sacrifice flys. The Jonathans alone accounted for half of our hits - Jon Finkelstein was 2 for 2 and Jon Wachtel was 2 for 4 in this come-from-behind win!

We are officially 9-0 in All Stars play. For the latest story in the IJ, click here.

The brackets shown are for games played through our win last night. Tomorrow at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, we play the winner of tonight's game between South Oakland and Benicia.

Check out the pictures on Flickr. If you don't want to get there from the blog, and if this link doesn't work, you can go directly to www.flickr.com and search for "Hopelain".

The game starts at 5:30. The team carpooling tradition continues - Leslie and Judy will be at the Community Center at 3:00 and will leave by 3:15. Please email me (jhopelain@yahoo.com) if you player is NOT riding with the team. Here are directions to Bishop O'Dowd at 9500 Stearns Avenue from Mapquest:

• Take I-580 E. (go 26.1 miles)
• Take the GOLF LINKS RD/98TH AVENUE exit. (go 0.2 miles)
• Stay STRAIGHT to go onto 98TH AVE. (go 0.2 miles)
• Turn RIGHT onto STEARNS AVE. (go 0.2 miles)
• End at 9500 STEARNS AVE, on the RIGHT. (go 0.0 miles)

>> TOTAL ESTIMATED TIME: 42 minutes | DISTANCE: 33.11 miles

Way to go, Mill Valley Juniors All Stars!