Crescenta Valley Andy’s rolls to Tournament of Champions title

LA CRESCENTA — With Bryson Reeves batting clean-up, Crescenta Valley Andy’s appeared to be in good shape.

Practically each time he stepped into the batter’s box, Reeves was presented with the opportunity of driving in runs.

Reeves collected two hits and drove in four runs to propel Andy’s to a 10-4 win against Crescenta Valley Elks in the Little League District 16 Tournament of Champions title contest on Tuesday at Dunsmore Park.

“I’ve been hitting well in the big situations,” Reeves said. “I like when the pressure is on to come through.

“It’s an honor to win the championship because we have a great team.”

Andy’s received a stellar effort from starting pitcher Brian Harley, who overcame a shaky first inning before settling down to hold Elks at bay. The right-hander struck out five and yielded nine hits in 5 1/3 innings before reaching the 96-pitch count.

Andy’s also got three hits, three runs and two runs batted in from Braeden Bentzen and three runs from Chase Smith.

“It’s just about consistency with our team,” Andy’s Manager Ed Parrott said. “We got a real good effort from Harley on the mound and our defense played well behind him.

“It’s a real good core that we’ve had for the last two years. We have a lot of interchangeable parts and that can help the team a lot.”

Elks took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a pair of throwing errors.

Reeves drove in a run with a double to cut the deficit to 2-1. A groundout by Colby Rees tied it at 2 before an error led to two more runs for Andy’s.

Andy’s scored three runs in the second to grab a 7-2 lead. Bentzen drove in a run with a double before Reeves contributed a two-run single to raise the lead to 7-2.

Andy’s scored three runs in the fourth to make it 10-2. Bentzen had a run-scoring single to give Andy’s an 8-2 advantage. A sacrifice fly to shallow right by Reeves made it 9-2 before Harley drove in a run with a single.

Andy’s received two runs from Vincent Parrott and one each from Harley and Rees.

Elks scored two runs in the sixth, both coming on a error.

Chad Ruf scored a pair of runs for Elks, which got one apiece from Andrew Boyle and David Baek.

Elks Manager David Kim said his team picked up some good results throughout the tournament.

“We have a very smart baseball team,” said Kim, who got two hits apiece from Aarom Kim, Ruf and Isaac Sung. “We’re not the most athletic team, but we have some quality players who go out there and battle through each game. We have the type of team that’s very good at playing small ball.”