WHAT A COMEBACK ... The 2022 Palo Alto Little League City Championship ended with a faceoff between the final two teams: Bike Connection and Agile. Bike Connection was a strong contender with 15 regular season wins heading into the tournament, but surprisingly suffered its first loss on May 21 to Agile, which walked away with an 11-3 win, according to league registrar Richard Sousa. Agile's Paxton Liu pitched a complete game that day for his team, which had previously only won three regular season games. The final, winner-take-all game between both teams on May 23 drew a large crowd to the Palo Alto ballpark on Middlefield Road, Sousa said. Bike Connection kicked off the showdown with four runs in the first inning, with help from James Young's two-out, three-run double. Agile's Liu responded with a double play that ended the second inning. Bike Connection brought its "clutch hitting," which carried the team through the season to the game, as seen through Alex Tran's two-out single in the third inning that elevated his team 7-1. Agile fought back at the bottom of the third inning with a rally that was kicked off by Seabastian Tung's single and continued with a two-out, RBI single, according to Sousa. Ultimately, Bike Connection won the tournament 17-7, but Agile took the loss with grace. "No one gave us a chance in the tournament," Agile manager Mark Burton said. "Starting as a number five seed, we turned this into a positive." Bike Connection manager Rich Kimble applauded his team, who he called "a special group of kids."

ADVOCATE FOR THE CHILDREN ... Sarah Duffy, who started serving as Santa Clara County's first chief children's officer this week, may be a familiar face to some Palo Altans. She's a longtime children's program analyst, strategist and manager who was part of the city's Community Services Department until last month, according to her LinkedIn profile. "This leadership role centers children and the policies which affect them," county Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said in a May 27 press release. "The Chief Children's Officer will work with our community partners to be a direct advocate for children, explore new funding opportunities and build connections and coordination among county programs," Ellenberg said. Duffy, who started in her new role on Tuesday, also brings nearly 10 years of experience as a manager of data and evaluation at the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families. The new job is part of an effort to serve the 440,000 children who live in the county. In its 2021-2022 budget, the county dedicated $1 billion for children's services, most of which is funded through the federal and state governments, among other sources. The $1 billion is around 11% of the county's total budget, according to the press release. "The leaders of Santa Clara County really have a finger on the pulse of what young people and their families need," Duffy said. "This Office will support the implementation of high priority Board-supported initiatives, as well as support the County organization in advancing equity and creating opportunities for children and youth."

JOINING FORCES ... Palo Alto-based VMware will be acquired by software company Broadcom through a cash-and-stock transaction valued at $61 billion, according to a joint May 26 press release. Under the deal, Broadcom Software Group plans to rebrand and operate as VMware, a cloud computing giant that's one of the largest tenants at Stanford Research Park. "Combining our assets and talented team with Broadcom's existing enterprise software portfolio, all housed under the VMware brand, creates a remarkable enterprise software player," VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram said. Broadcom, based in San Jose, also will assume $8 billion of VMware's debt. Broadcom's president and CEO Hock Tan echoed Raghuram's sentiments in the release. "This transaction combines our leading semiconductor and infrastructure software businesses with an iconic pioneer and innovator in enterprise software as we reimagine what we can deliver to customers as a leading infrastructure technology company," Tan said. The deal is expected to be one of the biggest technology acquisitions, falling behind Microsoft's planned acquisition of the video game company Activision Blizzard under an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion, according to multiple media reports. Microsoft made its plan public in January.