Green Valley stars want their chance to shine

Adam Candee

Friday, Aug. 6, 2004 | 10:12 a.m.

Surrounding the pressure-filled games, there is plenty of downtime during the Green Valley Little League All-Stars' 10-day excursion to the Western Region tournament in San Bernardino, Calif. There is a pool, a ping-pong table and plenty of imagination at the compound where they sleep, eat and play with their competition from around the West.

But even on an off-day for the kids fighting for a trip to the Little League World Series, they can't put down the bats -- even if was just a game of wiffleball. That's where coach Don Harrison's kids were Thursday afternoon as he discussed his team's great start on the road to Williamsport, Pa.

The Green Valley kids walloped Wyoming, 28-0, to open round-robin play and followed that by outlasting Arizona, 4-2, to go undefeated into tonight's showdown with the strong Southern California entry playing on its home turf.

"We control our own destiny at this point," Harrison said. "The kids are kind of excited."

Excited, but not too nervous: Nine of the players on this team won the Nevada state title for 9- and 10-year-olds two years ago. Cory Welch and Brett Harrison return from last year's team that advanced to the semifinals of the region tournament, and their experience has been key in helping the team advance.

"We've been playing really pretty good baseball," Harrison said.

While the Green Valley team put up 28 runs in Monday's win versus Wyoming -- thanks to 6 RBIs apiece from Welch and Cooper Manwarren -- the team's pitching has been its greatest asset. Seth Brenner and Manwarren combined to hold the Wyoming team to one hit.

In Tuesday's victory against Arizona, Cameron Harper picked up the win by striking out eight and allowing just one earned run over 4 2/3 innings. Welch got the final out in the fifth and pitched a perfect sixth for the save.

The task gets no easier against Southern California, though, at a field where thousands of fans routinely show up for its games.

"We've picked up our practice a couple of notches to offset that," Harrison said.

Pool play concludes Sunday, with the top four of six teams advancing to the semifinals on Tuesday. The semifinal winners meet Thursday for the trip to the World Series.