Crescenta Valley 10-11 baseball All-Stars down Vaquero
GLENDALE — Backed by 15 singles that led to an impressive 22-run effort, the Crescenta Valley 10-11 Little League All-Star team still has an opportunity to capture the Tri-Cities District 16 Tournament.
It was a performance that none of the Crescenta Valley players likely expected when they met Vaquero on Friday in the championship game at Pacific Park.
Crescenta Valley finished with 20 hits en route to a 22-0 win over Vaquero in a contest called after four innings.
Now, Crescenta Valley will look to remain red hot and Vaquero will seek to get back on track quickly, as the teams will meet in a winner-take-all game at 9 a.m. Saturday at Tujunga Little League Fields.
Crescenta Valley suffered a 2-1 loss in seven innings to Vaquero earlier in the tournament.
“I had no idea we’d do what we did tonight with the bats,” Crescenta Valley manager Kevin Deitch said. “We just started putting the ball in play and a lot of good things happened.
“We had a much better approach with our at-bats compared to the first time we played them. Things worked out well and we’ll just try to continue doing the same thing Saturday.”
Holden Deitch finished with four hits and drove in five runs to spur Crescenta Valley.
Crescenta Valley scored five runs in the first inning to build a 5-0 lead. It scored 11 runs on 10 hits in the second to pad the lead to 16-0.
Two runs scored on a fielder’s choice by Callum Clark to make it 2-0. Joe Risso, Will Nyhan and Caden Schulte each drove in a run later in the first inning to make it 5-0.
Crescenta Valley sent 16 batters to the plate in the second. Crescenta Valley finished with nine singles in the inning.
Clark, Risso and Nyham each drove in runs with singles to give Crescenta Valley an 8-0 lead and Holden had a bases-loaded double later in the inning to extend the lead to 15-0. Risso finished with four hits and had four runs batted in.
Crescenta Valley scored six runs in the third to close out the scoring.
“It’s a do-or-die game, so we had to be ready to play,” Holden Deitch said. “We were able to get things going with our bats. Now we have to be ready right away for the next game.”
Vaquero starting pitcher Sean Forrero was hit in the left knee by a line drive in the second inning and was removed. After the game, the Crescenta Valley players went to the Vaquero dugout to greet Forrero, who had an ice pack applied to his knee.
Risso went all four innings, limiting Vaquero to three hits. He struck out five.
“I’m glad we don’t have to wait a long time to play again,” Vaquero manager Mickey Moreno said. “ We’ll get back at it and see what happens.
“We had a tough first inning in which one ball got out of the infield and they get five runs out of it. We’ll have our pitching ready to go and look for a much better effort. We knew CV has a good hitting team.”
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
