Burbank 10-12 baseball All-Stars eliminated in Section 2 Tournament
TUJUNGA — Though it turned out to be a short stay in the Section 2 Tournament, the Burbank 10-12 baseball All-Star team had plenty to be proud of after a successful season.
Burbank saw its season come to a close Thursday following an 11-6 loss to Sierra Madre National at Tujunga Little League Fields.
Burbank came in to the tournament fresh off winning the District 16 championship before its pitching ran out of gas in the double-elimination Section 2 Tournament.
“We definitely came a long ways,” said Burbank coach David Diamond, whose team began the tournament Wednesday with a 10-8 loss against Quartz Hill. “We had a couple of rough third innings in both games in which we gave up six runs each game. Our pitching just wasn’t too deep and you need to have a lot of pitching to get through a tournament like this one and even beyond.
“Still, there’s a lot of good things that we were able to accomplish. We played very well in the District 16 Tournament. We had a little more than a week and that time off in between tournaments might have hurt our momentum a little bit.”
Sierra Madre, which captured the District 17 title, received a pair of home runs and four runs batted in from Cam Andrews.
Andrews hit a home run to right field in the top of the first to give Sierra Madre a 1-0 lead.
Burbank tied it at 1 in the bottom of the first on a wild pitch.
Then Sierra Madre batted for nearly 35 minutes, scoring six runs in the third inning to take a commanding 7-1 lead.
Andrews homered to center to give Sierra Madre a 4-1 lead. An error by the second baseman made it 5-1 and an error by the left fielder extended the lead to 6-1. Drew Beltran had a run-scoring double to cap the scoring in the inning.
Burbank showed some resolve in its half of the third, receiving a three-run home run to center by Daniel Neria to cut the deficit to 7-4.
“We did everything we could to try to come back after we gave up the six runs,” said Diamond, who got three hits from Owen Minzes. “I like the way we came back with those three runs. We just couldn’t get any closer the rest of the way.”
Sierra Madre and Burbank each scored one run in the fifth.
Jack Stipa of Sierra Madre had a bases-loaded single to center to extend lead to 8-5. Burbank responded by scoring on a wild pitch to make it 8-6.
Sierra Madre scored five runs in the sixth to seal the victory.
Casey Skett and Daniel Latshaw had run-scoring singles to highlight the scoring.
“It was a great experience to be able to play against some real good teams in the tournament,” said Minzes, who scored two runs Thursday and hit a home run in Wednesday’s contest. “It was hard falling behind early on in both games, but we have the team that’s capable of coming back. We just came up a little short.”
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
