Vanole powers Burbank Major baseball past Jewel City
MONTROSE — Behind the heavy hitting of third baseman Tanner Vanole, the Burbank Major Baseball All-Stars rallied for a 6-2 victory Tuesday evening over the Jewel City/Jewish War Veterans/Tujunga All-Stars in opening-round District 16 Tournament action at Montrose Park.
With the victory, Burbank advanced to Wednesday’s winner’s bracket action to face Crescenta Valley at 7:30 p.m. Crescenta Valley opened with a 6-5 win over Foothill on Tuesday. Jewel City will face Foothill at 5 p.m. in consolation bracket action on Wednesday.
“Our bats woke up about the fifth inning when we finally started to hit the ball,” said Burbank Coach Chris Vanole, Tanner’s father. “Once we started to hit the ball, I knew we were in good shape.”
Tanner Vanole finished three for three with a home run, two runs batted in and two runs scored.
Vanole gave his team some breathing run in the top of the sixth inning when he connected on a first-pitch fastball for a two-run homer that scaled about half the hill past center field.
The homer came after Joe Estrada led off the inning with a single to center.
Vanole’s homer was part of a three-run inning for Burbank, which took a 6-2 lead.
The inning could have been a lot worse for Jewel City, as Burbank sent nine batters to the plate and had runners on second and third with no outs and, later, the bases loaded with one out.
In both circumstances, Jewel City reliever Natasha Cohen found a way to tap dance out of trouble, including inducing back-to-back pop outs to limit the damage.
After being shut out for three innings, Burbank responded with a three-run fourth inning to jump ahead, 3-1.
The Media City squad connected on three hits and took advantage of three Jewel City errors in the fourth.
Vanole got the inning started with a one-out single to third and eventually scored on an error and single from Aidan Cox to tie the game at 1.
Cox came home on a single from Cole Clark and a throwing error, while Clark crossed home plate on a wild pitch.
While Jewel City was seemingly in striking distance the entire contest, the squad couldn’t put together a big inning and scored single runs in the third and fourth innings.
“Our kids haven’t been playing together for that long and I think they were a little bit overwhelmed today,” Jewel City Coach Art Ulloa said. “This is our first year for nine of 11 kids for Majors and it’s a faster game. During the season, we did well and I think we had a chance, but we fell apart.”
Jewel City took its only lead of the game, 1-0, in the bottom of the third.
With two outs, No. 9 hitter Josh Trosper legged out an infield single to short, advanced to second on a walk to Joaquin Rodriguez and scored on a single from Cohen and a throwing error.
In the fourth, Jewel City smacked three hits as Alex Concepcion scored his team’s only run in the frame on a throwing error.
The visitors tried to mount a rally in the sixth after Concepcion led off with a triple, but reliever Clark and Rory Freck recorded two strikeouts and an infield out to preserve the 6-2 win.
