Make No Mistake--Van Nuys Team Nears Babe Ruth Title

24 years of coaching youth baseball, Dave Kramer of Van Nuys has developed a simple formula for success.

“At this level,” he said last week, “you really don’t win games. The other teams just lose by making errors.”

Kramer’s words ring true for the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Babe Ruth All-Star team, which is competing in the Pacific Southwest Regional this week.

The defending regional champions have taken advantage of 10 errors in two games to breeze into the winners’ bracket final against Northern California champion Alameda tonight at 8 at Lawrence Park.

The winner of tonight’s game will advance to the championship final of the double-elimination tournament Friday at 5 p.m. The loser drops into the losers’ bracket.

Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks scored six unearned runs in romping over Glendale, Ariz., 14-5, Sunday night, then scored five unearned runs Monday night in a 9-1 rout of Aloha East of Honolulu.

Kramer’s team of 14- and 15-year-olds, hoping to make a repeat appearance in the Babe Ruth World Series from Aug. 16-24 in Jamestown, N.Y., overcame a 5-0 deficit against Glendale.

It went ahead to stay in the fifth, scoring six runs to open a 10-5 lead as Glendale made four of its seven errors.

“They just kicked the ball around,” said Kramer, whose own team hasn’t been so careless. Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks has made three errors this week--two after the game against Aloha East already had been decided--and only 10 in eight games of All-Star competition.

Victor Salazar, 14, a sophomore at Providence High, picked up the victory in relief, giving up two hits in four innings.

The next night against the Hawaiians, 6-3 first baseman Jeff Light clubbed two doubles, but again it was errors by the opposition that paved the way for Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks.

“It was very unusual,” Kramer said. “Hawaii usually doesn’t crack that way. . . .

“We scored three legitimate runs and then they started squeezing the ball a little bit and gave us another six.”

Light, a sophomore at Montclair Prep in Van Nuys and one of three veterans of last year’s World Series still on the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks team, has a team-high four hits in two games.

Kramer’s pitching staff is in pretty good shape, too.

Starter Glen Rothstein went only five innings against Aloha to pick up the win, so Kramer has all of his pitchers available for tonight.

New tournament rules allow a pitcher to work only seven innings in two games. Last year, pitchers could not work in consecutive games.

Tonight’s starter will be Jeff Cirillo, who won three games in the district and Southern California playoffs, but lasted only two innings against Glendale.

Alameda has advanced by beating teams from Taylorsville, Utah, and South Reno, Nev.