Beer’s three-hitter lifts Crescenta Valley over Burbank
Through four innings Friday evening, Crescenta Valley High’s Trevor Beer and Burbank’s Henry Leake were locked in a pitchers’ duel.
The game was scoreless through the first four frames as the hurlers sailed along, Leake holding the Falcons hitless and Beer having surrendered just two hits.
In the fifth, however, Crescenta Valley seized its chance. With just two hits, the Falcons took advantage of two Burbank errors in the fifth to score four runs, which provided more than enough offense for Crescenta Valley in a 7-0 Pacific League win at Burbank.
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The win completed a two-game sweep of the Bulldogs for the Falcons, who also received a complete-game win Tuesday from pitcher Scott Vincerii.
Over seven innings in an efficient 79-pitch shutout effort, Beer allowed three hits while striking out five and walking two.
“With our pitching staff, we feel good and we trust each other and we know if we struggle, someone will come right in and pick us up,” Beer said. “It’s also nice to know we have a great defense behind us if we don’t have our best stuff.
“We didn’t get any runs early today, but I trust my team and I know that we are going to grind it out to do anything that we can to win.”
Leake pitched well in the first four innings for Burbank (9-8, 5-3 in league). And although he surrendered just two hits in the fifth, two of his team’s four errors on the day kept a Crescenta Valley rally going.
“You have to play catch, that’s the bottom line,” Burbank Coach Bob Hart said. “They did a better job at that than we did and we kind of got what we deserved.
“It was a nip-and-tuck game through the fourth inning and I thought Henry was pitching well. But we just made some mistakes and that hurt us.”
In the fourth, the Falcons took a 4-0 lead as the result of the two errors, a run-scoring single to right field by Kewin Ledesma and an RBI groundout by Will Rees.
Crescenta Valley, which had six hits, made it 7-0 with three runs in the seventh, one coming on a groundout by Beer and the other two on a double off the right-field fence by Anthony Russo.
While the Falcons were stymied over the first four innings, getting just two runners on base, the Bulldogs had their chances to score. Burbank had a runner on third in the first inning with two outs and Beer induced a groundout to quash the threat. In the fourth, Chris Minnick (two for three) singled with one out, went to second on a wild pitch and was sacrificed to third. However, he was left stranded after a flyout to center.
“We didn’t get anything early and I think sometimes the guys go into cruise control when Trevor’s pitching,” said Falcons Coach Phil Torres, whose team is ranked No. 3 in CIF Southern Section Division II. “They kind of think that everything is going to be OK and we can’t do that and put so much pressure on him to be perfect every time out.”
With the win, Crescenta Valley (19-1, 8-0), which has won 17 straight games, remains in first place in league, one game ahead of Burroughs and Arcadia, who are both 7-1 in league.
Branden Philips had the other hit for Burbank.
Twitter: @jefftsports
