Beer leads Crescenta Valley baseball to Babe Herman title

GLENDALE — Behind the power pitching of junior Trevor Beer and some late offense, the Crescenta Valley High baseball team captured the abbreviated 51st annual Babe Herman Tournament title.

The host Falcons scored the game’s final five runs and knocked off defending champion Reseda Cleveland, 5-1, on Wednesday evening at Stengel Field.

Crescenta Valley (9-1) finished 2-0 in its pool and had its round robin finale versus Birmingham rained out on Tuesday, which sent the Falcons into the tournament final against the other pool play champion Cleveland.

The victory continued a torrid start for the Falcons, who have won seven straight games, while Beer was named the tournament most valuable player after striking out nine batters and allowing one run on seven hits with no walks.

“I was just hitting my spots and keeping the ball down,” said Beer, who was also three for three at the plate with a run scored. “With a good hitting team like that, you can’t take anything for granted.”

At one point, Beer set down 10 straight Cavaliers (8-4) before back-to-back singles in the top of the seventh inning.

The first of those singles, however, resulted in an out, as Cleveland’s batter was easily thrown out trying to extend his base hit into a double.

Beer ended Wednesday’s affair with the final of his nine punchouts.

“We were down early, but I think that Trevor pitched very well,” Crescenta Valley Coach Phil Torres said. “He got better as the game went on. I still think we have to play a cleaner game, but we’ll take the win.”

Cleveland scored the game’s first run in the third inning and didn’t see Crescenta Valley tie until the bottom of the fourth when a sacrifice fly from Anthony Russo brought home Beer, who singled.

The Falcons added a run in the fifth and three more in the sixth to put the game out of reach.

Falcons senior catcher Kewin Ledesma finished two for three with a double, two runs batted in and a run scored and played a big role in his team’s offense.

Ledesma doubled in the fifth inning and scored the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly from Scott Vinceri to put the Falcons ahead, 2-1.

In the sixth, Crescenta Valley went up, 3-1, when a chopper from Troy Leef ate up Cleveland’s first baseman and resulted in a two-base error. On the error, Lorenzo Respicio (bunt single) scored, while Will Rees (walk) took third and Leef moved to second.

Rees and Leef scored on a two-run single from Ledesma as Crescenta Valley finished three for 12 with runners in scoring position with four RBI.

“It’s been a while since we won the tournament, so hats off to us,” Ledesma said. “We got down, 1-0, and it was a fight. We came back, got the lead and [Beer] shut them down the rest of the way.”

Cleveland had its chances, particularly through the first three innings.

The Cavaliers had at least one man reach second base in each inning, but batted 0 for six with runners in scoring position with four strikeouts and three runners stranded.

Cleveland pushed across the first run in the top of the third on a wonderfully executed squeeze bunt with one out from Nick Schmidt that scored Greg Conklin.

Cleveland freshman pitcher Chris Lozano also kept Crescenta Valley off-balance through most of the game before faltering late.

Despite his team’s red-hot play, Torres wasn’t thinking too far ahead.

“It’s been a while since we won this tournament,” Torres said. “I know we’ve won some early games, but I’m not even thinking about our run or anything like that. I just want a good, clean game out of us. That’s what matters to me.”