Crescenta Valley 9-10 All-Stars drop Section 2 baseball opener to Encino
ARCADIA — Even after dropping the opening game of the Little League Section 2 Tournament on Tuesday, the Crescenta Valley 9-10 All-Stars baseball team can draw upon a recent experience in its attempt to turn things around.
En route to winning the District 16 championship, Crescenta Valley had to come through the loser’s bracket before besting Burbank.
Crescenta Valley will look for a similar fate after it suffered a 17-7 defeat against Encino at Longden Field on Tuesday afternoon. The game was called in the fourth inning because of the 10-run mercy rule.
“We’ve done it before and now we’ll look to do it again,” said Crescenta Valley Manager Peter Pravikoff, whose team will face San Marino or Quartz Hill in an elimination contest at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the same venue. “We have to come right back and be able to put things together.
“We have a good-hitting team, but we need to get back up to where we need to be on defense and with our pitching. I just think we were a little ragged after winning [the district title] on Sunday and we gave them the day off Monday.”
Encino, which won the District 40 championship, will meet Quartz Hill or San Marino in a winner’s bracket game at 4 Wednesday at Longden. Encino scored six runs in the first and second innings to pull away from Crescenta Valley.
Crescenta Valley tried to make a couple of comeback attempts, but couldn’t cool off Encino’s bats.
“I think we might have been a little nervous coming into the game,” said Crescenta Valley’s Ethan McCloskey, who scored a pair of runs and drove in a run. “We just need to come back and work that much more harder and be able to put the ball in play.”
Crescenta Valley took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Caden Feehan scored on an error by the catcher. The lead wouldn’t last long, as Encino sent 10 batters to the plate to build a 6-1 advantage.
Moses Hyde and Ben Glazer had run-scoring singles in the inning to spark Encino. Hyde’s single made it 2-1 before Glazer capped the scoring.
Crescenta Valley scored two runs in the second to cut the deficit to 6-3. Holden Deitch had a single to plate Trent Thomasy and McCloskey scored on the play following a throwing error by the right fielder.
Encino broke the contest apart in the second to take a 12-3 lead. Hyde, Wilson Henze, Glazer and Nate Castellon each drove in a run for Encino.
Duncan Marsten hit a lead-off home run in the third for Encino to make it 13-3. Encino scored four more runs in the third to take a 17-3 lead.
Crescenta Valley received a single by McCloskey to score Wesley Kim to make it 17-4. Brady Scheu scored on an error to cut the lead to 17-5. Deitch scored on a wild pitch and Hank Norman drove in the final run with a ground out to shortstop.
Crescenta Valley finished with four hits. By comparison, Encino collected nine hits. Hyde finished with three hits.
“We had a hard time finding the strike zone and we made a few errors,” Pravikoff said. “We get another chance, at least.”
