Green Valley shooting for stars

Victoria Sun

Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2001 | 10:14 a.m.

The cameras will be on, the lights will be shining brightly and the stands at Houghton Stadium in San Bernardino, Calif., are expected to be filled with 7,000 screaming fans.

This time, the Green Valley Little League All-Stars are hopeful they will be ready for the commotion.

Green Valley will play Oceanside (Calif.) Little League tonight at 7 in the Little League Western Regional championship game, with the winner advancing to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., beginning Friday.

"Everyone is so pumped up," precocious Green Valley first baseman Jake Wagner said. "We were all yelling and screaming (when we made it to the championship game).

"It's crazy. Everyone is just so ready for it. Knowing that we can go to the World Series is a great thing. I don't think we've ever had more of a rush than from this."

According to longtime observers, the last time a Little League team from Green Valley made it to the Western Regional was in 1983, before all of the players on this year's team were born.

Tonight's game will be televised live on ESPN2, another reason Wagner and his teammates are raring to go.

"Last night the lights came on for ESPN," an excited Wagner said while describing the crew setting up its equipment. "The lights just totally blanked out the whole field.

"Everyone is scared of messing up on TV. So we're all going to try our hardest."

The Gators dropped their first game in district play, then won seven straight to advance to the state championships where the team went 4-0.

Green Valley advanced to the regional championship the hard way, by losing its first two games in pool play before winning its last three.

In the first game, the team lost to Oceanside, 3-1, before a pro-Southern California crowd.

"The kids looked really scared in that game; you could see it on their faces," Green Valley coach Jeff Whiteaker said. "There were so many fans cheering for Oceanside. Our kids didn't even look like they were playing baseball until the fifth inning.

"Now, we're looking good. We've got a lot of pitching left for this last game. We've been hitting very well and playing tremendous defense."

In Green Valley's last three games, the team has scored a combined 26 runs and hit nine home runs.

Wagner went 4-for-4 in a win over Los Gatos, Calif., and hit a three-run homer avenging a second game loss to Tucson, Ariz., on Sunday.

Against Oceanside, Whiteaker said the team will start either Travis Jones, Ben Morris or Carmen Romano.

Tonight, revenge and a trip to Williamsport will be Green Valley's motivation.