Crescenta Valley Junior All-Stars ride Schaffer to Section 2 title game

It’s on to the Section 2 title game for the Crescenta Valley Junior All-Stars baseball team.

The District 16 champions scored all the offense they needed two innings into their contest Thursday evening, rode the arm of pitcher J.D. Schaffer and defeated visiting Encino, 5-1, at Tehachapi Little League.

With the victory, Crescenta Valley punched its ticket to Saturday’s section title game at 6 p.m.

District 17 champion Santa Anita of Arcadia will face District 40 champion Encino in Friday’s elimination game to see who will face Crescenta Valley on Saturday.

“It was an all-around good team effort,” Crescenta Valley Coach Bryan Rich said. “It really helped that J.D. pitched unbelievably well. That was the best game I’ve seen him pitch all year. The defense was also great behind him, too. Jamie Bleveans was great at short.”

Schaffer went the distance for Crescenta Valley, striking out eight, while hitting one batter.

With the scored tied at 1 after one, Crescenta Valley took control for good thanks to a four-run second inning. Trent Steele started the rally with a one-out walk, followed by back-to-back singles from Brian Ghattas and Brian Harley.

While Encino picked up what seemed like a crucial second out without allowing a run, the visitors made a crucial error when an outfield flyball from leadoff batter Vincent Parrott (two runs) was dropped, which allowed Steele and Ghattas to score as Crescenta Valley led, 3-1.

Following the costly error, No. 2 hitter Jagr Proiette laced a single to score two more runs and propel Crescenta Valley to a 5-1 lead.

“We scored thanks to some errors, but I still thought our offense was good,” Rich said. “We were facing a team with a lot of high school kids, guys from Chaminade and Loyola and we still played well.”

Encino, which entered Thursday’s contest fresh off an extra-inning 5-4 victory over Santa Anita on Monday, took the lead, 1-0, after half an inning.

That would be all the offense for the San Fernando Valley squad, as Schaffer didn’t allow a run the rest of the contest.

“Coach called a great game and I had my defense behind me making some big plays,” Schaffer said.

Crescenta Valley knotted the game at 1 in the bottom half of the first inning as Parrott led off with a double and then scored on an error that also allowed Proiette to reach.

Even with the win and dominant effort from Schaffer, there was still a little disbelief in the dugout afterward.

“I didn’t think we’d get here, but my team showed it,” Schaffer said. “I think we can still go pretty far.”