The San Mateo Post 82 American Legion Shockers Baseball team is headed for Yountville after all.
After originally being declared out of the state tourney for apparently filing paperwork late, San Mateo won an appeal Moday and is back in the tourney, said San Mateo Legion assistant coach Rick Lavezzo.
The news confirmed a tweet Monday by John Reid of the Palo Alto Daily News.
“It was a computer mistake,” Lavezzo said. “The problem was we didn’t get our background checks (for coaches) back and that wouldn’t let us proceed to the next item (on the computer) we had to input that was our insurance and we weren’t able to input our roster either.”
The situation was cleared up in one day when it was determined the San Mateo team was not at fault, Lavezzo said.
“I’m excited,” San Mateo slugging third baseman Angelo Bortolin said. “I think we should have a good chance (to win state).”
Lavezzo, who is an assistant football coach at Serra and an assistant baseball coach at Carlmont, was matter-of-fact about the turn of events.
“It’s the way it should be,” he said. “We’ve played all summer to get to this and to not have been able to play because of an administrative thing is ridiculous.”
The Shockers appeared to clinch their berth in state last Thursday by defeating the Redwood City Post 105 Blues 9-1 at Burlingame’s Washington Park. That should have allowed them to represent Area 2 in the state tourney at Cleve Borman Field in Yountville.
But then the national chapter of American Legion declared that San Mateo was out of the tourney.
Said Legion state chairman Odell Shelton to the Daily News: "The deadline to file their insurance was June 1. We received their papers on June 25. We have rules we go by. The decision was made by national, not by the state."
But then came San Mateo's appeal. The Shockers were able to explain their situation and by 5 p.m. Monday they were back in the tourney.
