Burbank Junior softball All-Stars leave with consolation prize
Though the Burbank Little League Junior All-Star softball team wasn’t able to extend its postseason run, at least it left the West Region Tournament with the consolation prize.
After losing the first two games of the tournament, Burbank found itself in the consolation round of the event at Arthur Pack Regional Park in Tucson, Ariz.
Burbank rolled to a pair of victories, capped by a 15-4 win against Apache Junction (Ariz.) on Monday night in the consolation title contest. Burbank notched an 18-5 victory against Thornydale (Ariz.) on Sunday.
“I think it was like night and day the way we played the last two games compared to the first two games,” Burbank manager Rocco Buffolino said. “We talked a lot about that after losing the first two games. I think we put a little too much added pressure on the first two games and then we became a totally different team the final two games.”
Burbank, the District 16 representative which won the Section 2 and Division State championship titles, started the tournament Friday with a 7-1 defeat against Utah Cedar American before falling, 5-2, to Apache Junction.
“We went out and made some adjustments, starting with being more relaxed,” Buffolino said. “There wasn’t anything left at stake, so we just had to play a couple of ball games.”
Burbank held a 5-3 lead against Apache Junction before scoring 10 runs to break it open. Kaelyn Freed had a bases-loaded triple to make it 8-3.
Burbank, which finished with 16 hits, held a 5-0 lead entering the bottom of the fifth before Apache Junction trimmed the deficit to 5-3.
Clarisa Robles finished with four hits for Burbank, which received four runs batted in from Makenna Palamara.
Burbank pitcher Ann Buffolino struck out five.
Burbank scored 11 first-inning runs against Thornydale to take an 11-0 lead. Burbank collected 16 hits overall, including three from Melissa Orozco and Palamara finished with seven RBI.
Rocco Buffolino said Burbank ended the tournament on a bright note.
“We have a pretty young team,” he said. “We took advantage of a second chance to right the ship. It was a great experience for our team.”
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
