Burbank Junior All-Stars stay alive, go to game three with Crescenta Valley

TUJUNGA — Members of the Burbank Junior All-Stars baseball team were not pleased with their District 16 Tournament performance Thursday in which they lost to Crescenta Valley by six runs.

Burbank, facing elimination, was looking to bounce back in the division championship game against the same Crescenta Valley squad Friday.

The Media City team did just that, receiving a fine pitching performance from Carter Kessinger in a 7-2 Burbank victory at the Tujunga Little League Fields.

PHOTOS: Burbank Junior All-Stars defeats Crescenta Valley, 7-2

The teams will play at 10 a.m. Saturday in for the championship at the same venue.

“We just didn’t play well in that game [Thursday] against them,” said Burbank Manager Thomas Magoon, whose squad lost, 7-1. “We had just got our new uniforms that day, kids were running around and we were just not as focused as we should have been. It was more like a sandlot game for them.

“But today, I thought we came out a lot more focused and our guys really played a complete game. We had great pitching, we got solid hitting and we played real good defense.”

Kessinger, a right-hander, went 6 2/3 innings before he was pulled after hitting the pitch limit. In a 99-pitch effort, Kessinger allowed two runs (one earned), three hits, struck out four and walked one.

Kessinger was aided by a defense that didn’t commit an error.

“It’s nice when you can have a defense like that behind you,” Kessinger said. “I really have confidence in them and they played great.

“I was just trying to pound the zone today and I got into trouble when I didn’t do that. But overall, I felt pretty good.”

Burbank began the scoring by pushing across a run in the first inning. Kessinger reached on an error and was plated by a double just inside the right-field line by Nico Chuidan (two for three with a double and two runs batted in).

It was two Crescenta Valley errors that came into play in the second inning when Burbank increased its advantage to 4-0. Matty Porras drove in a run with a single to left and Jonathon Angel plated two runs with a base hit to right.

Crescenta Valley committed five errors in the game.

“We did make some miscues and we didn’t hit as well as we should have,” Crescenta Valley Manager Bryan Rich said. “But you have to give it to Burbank; their pitcher threw great and they hit the ball today.”

Crescenta Valley finally got on board in the third inning. Brian Harley was hit by a pitch, Brian Ghattas walked and Vinny Parrott legged out an infield single to load the bases. The next batter, Jager Proiette, grounded into a 4-6-3 double play that scored Harley. Ghattas then scored on a wild pitch to pull Crescenta Valley to 4-2.

But Burbank countered with two runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 6-2. Burbank added a single run in the sixth.

“If we play like we did today, there is no reason why we can’t win the game against them [Saturday],” Magoon said. “We just have to play like this again.”

Ricky Perez was two for four with an RBI and Porras was two for four for Burbank.