Schaffer’s bat, arm lead Crescenta Valley Junior baseball to opening victory
TUJUNGA — Nothing hardly rattled JD Schaffer when he stood on the mound or in the batter’s box.
No matter the situation, the Crescenta Valley Junior All-Star baseball player seemed in control. His calmness and fluidity helped Crescenta Valley take a gigantic step forward in the Little League District 16 Tournament.
Schaffer scattered six hits in a complete game effort and drove in three runs Thursday to help Crescenta Valley register a 7-1 win against Burbank at Tujunga Little League Fields.
“I felt good at all times in both areas,” Schaffer said. “I was able to throw a lot of strikes and my defense made some good plays behind me.
“It’s very important to get the first win [in the tournament]. We have a much better opportunity now. At the plate, everything just seemed to click for me. We have a good team and we just have to stay with it the rest of the way.”
Crescenta Valley will meet Burbank at 5 p.m. Friday in the tournament’s championship game at Tujunga Little League Fields. An if-necessary third game would be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the same location.
Even when Schaffer got into a couple of jams, he found a way to minimize the damage. He got out of a tight spot in the fourth inning, when Burbank had runners on first and third with two outs before Schaffer got a flyball to center to end the threat. After giving up a run in the fifth, Schaffer came back and got a force out to keep Crescenta Valley ahead.
“JD did a great job, especially with the pitching effort,” Crescenta Valley Coach Bryan Rich said. “He’s been working hard at coming back and he did everything he needed to do to get here. I couldn’t be happier for him.
“We know Burbank has a good team and they will come back stronger. We have to be ready to go to match them.”
Crescenta Valley scored two runs in the bottom of the third to take a 2-0 lead. Vincent Parrott had a double to left field to score Brian Ghattas to make it 1-0. Schaffer then drove in Parrott with a groundout to the pitcher to extend the advantage to 2-0.
Trent Steele had a run-scoring single to plate David Melendez to make it 3-0 with two outs in the fourth.
Burbank trimmed the deficit to 3-1 in the fifth on a bases-loaded walk to Carter Kessinger that scored Stone Schafer. Schaffer then got a forceout to third to quell Burbank’s comeback bid.
Crescenta Valley broke the game open in the sixth, scoring four runs. Brian Harley had a single to score Melendez to make it 4-1. Harley scored on a an error by the shortstop to raise the lead to 5-1. Schaffer closed out the scoring with a two-run single to Steele and Parrott.
Crescenta Valley finished the contest with nine hits., including two from Melendez.
“I think we just lacked passion, something that’s not normally the case,” said Burbank Coach Thomas Magoon, whose team received two hits from Jonathan Angel. “They took advantage of our mistakes, so now we need to come back and have a better outing.
“We didn’t hit the ball well, but JD pitched a great game. They held us at bay.”
