Little League baseball: Thomas’ 2001 debut a big hit

Steve Virgen

COSTA MESA - The Costa Mesa National Little League Minor B Division

Cardinals lost their District 62 Tournament of Champions game Thursday,

7-6, to the Fountain Valley Brewers. Cory Hilleboe’s two-run homer in the

bottom of the fifth ousted the Cardinals from the TOC. The home run was

the first of the 10-year-old Hilleboe’s career.

But all that didn’t matter.

Honestly.

Especially for the Cardinals’ Kevin Thomas, who played his first game

of the season.

Thomas missed the entire season because he suffered from a severe bone

injury in his left arm. Near the shoulder area, doctors detected a benign

bone tumor, that made the arm prone to injury and doctors advised the

9-year-old not to play.

But with the TOC coming up, Thomas’ mother, Mary, gave the Cardinals’

coaches the OK and Kevin played three innings.

“I thought I was going to play outfield but I played shortstop,”

Thomas said.

In the bottom of the fifth, Thomas was the relay man when the

Cardinals completed a sensational play for the first out. A Brewer batter

slammed the ball out to right field and the Cardinals’ James Wanbaugh

snatched it and threw it to Thomas, who caught it as the runner was

halfway to third base. Thomas threw the runner out with a pinpoint dart

to Greer Holden, who applied the tag.

Thomas’ special moment came in the second inning. The Cardinals

collected two hits in the game and Thomas had one of them. He smacked a

pitch to left field for a base hit. He advanced to second and then to

third on a pair of passed balls. That’s when Mary Thomas held her breath

because she didn’t want to see her son slide at home.

But, with the bases loaded, his teammate, Ryan Burns, was walked.

Thomas jogged down the line, stutter-stepped before reaching home, took

one big leap and emphatically pounded his feet onto the plate.

“I was so excited,” Thomas said. “That felt really good.”

Thomas, though he could not play during the season, attended all but

one game and served as the coaches’ assistant and team batboy. Fittingly,

he wears jersey No. 1 and his performance was just that, as he inspired

teammates Thursday and throughout the season.

“It was really beneficial for us just to see him out there playing,”

Cardinals Manager Tom Burns said. “He was an inspiration to all of us

because he showed up to all of our games and then he played today. I knew

I wasn’t going to let him not play today. And it really paid off, just to

see him smile when he crossed home plate.”

There were other Cardinals who also turned in solid performances,

especially on defense. Pitcher Tyler Sullivan struck out four in five

innings and retired the side in order in the third and fourth. Sullivan

induced a grounder for the first out in the third. Then he made a sweet

grab of a screaming line drive and finished the inning when he caught a

Brewers’ runner stealing. He deceptively led the Brewers’ runner into

thinking he wasn’t paying attention and quickly threw to second baseman

Ryan Burns, who then sent the ball over to first, where John Paul

Stebbins tagged the runner out.

Sullivan also caught a runner stealing in the second inning. This

time, he ran the runner down and made the throw to third where Holden

caught the ball and tagged the runner.

Ryan Burns recorded a double play in the fifth inning when he caught a

line drive and threw the runner out trying to make it back to first.The

Cardinals came out with fire in the first as they scored four runs.

Sullivan, Ryan Burns, Billy Digiralamo and Stebbins scored as Sullivan

and Digiralamo earned RBIs and the other two came home on passed balls.

The Brewers, who won their Fountain Valley Little League, answered

with four runs in the bottom of the first and both teams tallied one run

each in the second, as Thomas scored for the 5-4 lead. The Cardinals went

ahead in the third when Stebbins scored on a passed ball.

“I told the kids, the score doesn’t matter,” Tom Burns said. “All that

mattered is that they played 100% and they did. They had fun. And, to see

Kevin, it really doesn’t get any better than this.”