Uncharacteristic play hounds Crescenta Valley High baseball in Babe Herman loss
GLENDALE — Going into the final game of pool play in the 49th annual Babe Herman Tournament, Crescenta Valley High’s baseball team had the chance to finish undefeated atop its four-team pool and secure a place in the final the next day.
However, the host Falcons were unable to seize the opportunity, falling, 4-1, to El Camino Real Tuesday evening at Stengel Field. That made things very complicated.
“I’m really disappointed, because we played poorly,” CV Coach Phil Torres said.
As a result of Crescenta Valley’s first loss of the tournament, the Falcons (6-2) joined El Camino Real (5-5) and Burbank as three of the four teams in the National League division to finish at 2-1.
The first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition, but that solved nothing as ECR holds that over CV, Burbank won head-to-head over ECR, and CV and Burbank never played one another.
Given this scenario, the first tiebreaker was judged moot, so the second tiebreaker, the fewest runs allowed, kicked into gear to settle the finishing order. Thus the Conquistadors, who allowed four runs, reached the finals ahead of CV (six runs allowed) and Burbank (11 runs allowed).
Crescenta Valley had the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh with one out and the bases full, but Kewin Ladesma grounded into a double play, ending the comeback threat. Earlier in the frame, the Falcons had gotten a leadoff single from Brandon Alsmman, but the senior was promptly caught stealing.
Falcon Adrian Damla had three of his team’s eight hits. The junior had three singles in four plate appearances.
“Luckily, I helped the team out,” Damla said. “I did what I did, but I’m still not happy [with how] our team did.”
Crescenta Valley fell behind early, giving up the first two runs of the contest in the second inning. Starting pitcher Jimmy Smiley looked to get out of the frame unscathed, but a throwing error by Weston Walker at third base prolonged the inning.
A second consecutive throwing error by Walker at third allowed the first run to score and the second came across on an infield single that went to Walker, but saw runner Dylan Hirsch beat out the throw to first.
The Falcons trailed, 3-0, going into the bottom of the fourth before getting one run back. Ladesma led off with a single and was replaced at first with courtesy runner Dakota Cummins. Cummins scored three batters later on a single by Walker. However, despite loading the bases, that would be it for the Falcons, ranked No. 10 in CIF Southern Division II, as El Camino Real ended the threat with a double play.
“To [ECR’s] credit, they played great defense,” Torres said.
In the fifth, the Falcons appeared to cut into the 4-1 Conquistador advantage when Brett Klein smashed a ball into right field that appeared to land in fair territory and would have driven in two runs. However, the ball was called foul and CV did not score in the inning.
“We got the kick call there,” Torres said. “[The ump] couldn’t get his mask off there. He was fumbling. When he pointed, he just pointed. It’s brutal. It was a terrible call. ... But we didn’t deserve to win. We played poorly.”
On Wednesday, ECR will play Arcadia in the championship game at 6 p.m. at Stengel. The Falcons will also play at their home field with a 3 p.m. match-up against Village Christian with ace Brian Gadsby making the start. Burbank will play host to Granada Hills at 3:15.