Alpine debuts as District 52’s first All-Star softball squad

A majority of the relatively young Alpine’s 11U All-Star roster is made up of 10-year-olds, including one 9-year-old, and Sigourney Miskowicz, who turned 10 on July 2.

“The rest are all 10U and, quite frankly, there’s still a lot that would qualify for 9U,” Alpine head coach Steve Miskowicz said. “So, we’re a young team.”

Coach Miskowicz said there weren’t enough players to form a 12U team, which, like baseball, is the first Little League level to face a Little League World Series national tournament. The 11U tournament finishes with the upcoming Nor Cal tournament opening July 12 in Sacramento.

“We didn’t want to exclude anybody,” Coach Miskowicz said. “We wanted to be as inclusive as possible, but that forced us to play up a little. And the talent is a little better.”

With Alpine’s boys recently winning the District 52 baseball championship in Palo Alto, the opening-day pitcher was Nolan Levinson. Alpine softball debuted with Nolan’s younger sister Thea Levinson in the circle. Alpine used five pitchers in the tournament, including Emmi Ihde, Missy McAdam, Sigourney Miskowicz and Penny Atkins.

Alpine lost to Dublin in Sunday’s elimination game 23-8. In Saturday’s opener, Alpine fell 25-10 to Dublin, but scored seven times in the top of the third to extend the mercy-rule outcome from to four innings.

“We came back from 20-3 and we got seven runs in one inning, we delayed the slaughter rule by one inning ... and I’m really proud of what they did there,” Coach Miskowicz said.

Sammy Ihde made the first official plate appearance as Alpine’s leadoff hitter, drawing a six-pitch walk. Piper Cahill recorded the team’s first hit, leading off the second inning with a single to center. Cahill later scored the team’s first run on a bases-loaded walk to Charlotte Zhong.

Cahill totaled two hits in the tourney opener, and finished the weekend 3 for 4 with three runs scored. Atkins added a 3-for-4 batting line on the weekend with two runs and two RBIs. Nora McDonough recorded two hits in the tournament, and had Alpine’s only extra-base hit Sunday with a game-tying RBI double to right in the first.

The Alpine roster also included: Amari Bhargava, Lucy Rosenblum, Izzi Russell, Katie Hintz Danica Seyer and Elena McNeil. Assistant coach was Doug Ihde.

In the regular season, Alpine Little League featured four levels of softball, including the player-pitch Majors 12U league. With approximately 50 Majors players, the league fielded four teams, with Allen Tax Law winning the league championship. The other three teams were Village Doctor, Service By Medallion and Lulu Jane Photography.

Alpine Little League also fielded a machine-pitch Minors league, a coach-pitch league and a T-ball league. The league plays primarily at Las Lomitas Elementary School in Atherton.

“Ideally, in a couple years, we might have more than one All-Star team,” Miskowicz said. “We might have a 10U or 12U ... so saying there’s an opportunity to grow, I would say yes.”

In his third year coaching in Alpine Little League, Coach Miskowicz said he and fellow coaches Cal Thomas and Dan McDonough wanted to start an All-Star team to create a localized option, other than travel leagues such as USA Softball, for players from the Alpine/Menlo Park area.

“There are other options that people have ... that aren’t Little League,” Coach Miskowicz said “So, we want to utilize our Little League and develop players ... and let them have fun, obviously.”