Crescenta Valley Junior baseball fights way through bracket
For a second straight contest, the Crescenta Valley Little League Junior All-Star baseball team avoided elimination and extended its season.
The District 16 and Section 2 champion defeated Redondo Beach, 9-6, in second-chance bracket action Wednesday afternoon in the Division 3 North Tournament at Santa Paula Little League.
“I told the guys that this is a good accomplishment, a big accomplishment,” Crescenta Valley Manager Bryan Rich said. “When we started tournament play, we were one of 480 teams in Southern California competing and now we’re down to 10 teams and that’s a big deal. I really congratulated the team.”
With the victory, Crescenta Valley earned advancement to the elimination bracket finale against Section 3 champion Ontario Mountain View or Section 1 champion Dos Pueblos on Thursday back at Santa Paula.
The game time is not set because Mountain View and Dos Pueblos had their championship bracket game Tuesday suspended due to darkness. The game will be picked up Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
The winner of that game will earn a spot in the championship game Saturday, while the loser will turn around and immediately face Crescenta Valley.
“I want to say that our game will start at around 6:30 p.m., but it’s a wait and see,” Rich said.
As for Wednesday, Crescenta Valley rallied from a 2-0 deficit with four runs in the bottom of third to go up by two and never relinquished the lead.
Redondo pulled within 4-3 in the top of the fourth inning before Crescenta Valley answered back with five straight runs to go up, 9-3, and hold on for a 9-6 win.
David Melendez drove in two runs for Crescenta Valley, while Isaac Sung scored two runs and Chase Smith hit a scoring double.
Relievers Smith and Andrew Boyle both tossed a scoreless inning, while Harrison Choi came in for the game’s final out and recorded a save.
Wednesday’s victory improved Crescenta Valley’s postseason record to 7-2, while the squad is now 3-0 in elimination contests.
Crescenta Valley opened the division tournament with a 13-5 loss to Mountain View on Saturday, but rebounded with a 4-3 victory over Section 5 champion Golden Hill in the elimination bracket on Sunday.
A Crescenta Valley victory on Thursday would propel the team into a championship game Saturday at noon at Santa Paula Little League.
Crescenta Valley would need to win that game to force a winner-take-all finale Sunday at noon at Santa Paula to claim a trip to the Southern California State Championships at Manhattan Beach, starting July 28.
