Van Nuys Advances in Babe Ruth Tournament

Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks kept alive its bid to make a second straight appearance in the Babe Ruth World Series by beating Aloha East of Honolulu, 7-2, Thursday night at Lawrence Park.

The Southern California champions must now sweep a doubleheader from Alameda tonight to qualify for the World Series Aug. 17-24 in Jamestown, N.Y.

Alameda, unbeaten in three games this week, needs only one victory tonight to win the double-elimination tournament and unseat Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks as the Pacific Southwest Regional champion.

The Northern California champions beat Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks, 4-0, Wednesday night and have not allowed an earned run in 21 innings this week.

Alameda pitchers, in fact, have given up only eight hits in their three victories.

Left-hander Ted Langowski took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks before yielding a pair of singles.

Tonight at 5:30, Alameda will use right-hander Jon French, who has not allowed an earned run in 29 innings of all-star competition.

“We started hitting their guy the other night,” said Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Manager Dave Kramer, trying to look on the bright side. “They didn’t blow us out.”

Not that Kramer doesn’t respect Alameda’s staff.

“If their No. 3 guy is as good as the first two, we could be in for a long night,” he said.

Aloha East presented an entirely different problem.

After being defeated by Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks, 9-1, Monday night, the Hawaiians came back to score 36 runs on 27 hits in 20-3 and 16-4 routs of Guam and San Mateo.

They continued to hit against Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks, but not when it mattered.

They got nine hits and put a runner on base in every inning, but they left 11 men on base.

They squandered a chance to tie the game in the sixth.

After scoring twice to cut their deficit to 3-2, the Hawaiians loaded the bases with two out before Neil Nichols lined out to second baseman Gary Nudell.

“He had hit the ball up the middle his previous time at bat,” Kramer said of Nichols, “so we tried to shade him up the middle. But they didn’t hear us and he hit the ball right at Gary.

“It was the best move we didn’t make all night.”

Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks broke it open in the bottom half of the inning, scoring four runs on only one hit, a bases-loaded triple by Luis Porres, one of its three veterans from last year’s World Series qualifier.

Another veteran, Rob Kostenbader, also played a key role. He relieved Glen Rothstein in the sixth to pick up a save.

“It’s great to have that experience,” Kramer said.

Kramer’s team took a 3-0 lead on an RBI double by Jeff Light, another World Series veteran, in the second and a two-run double by Jeff Cirillo in the fifth.

After surviving the sixth, Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks must now face an Alameda pitching staff that is not only stingy, but also well rested.

Alameda’s No. 3 pitcher, Andy Craig, has worked only 2 innings this week. Its No. 4 pitcher, Steve Wong, has not pitched at all.

French will be pitching on three days’ rest.

Alameda Coach Mike McKee was smiling when he said, “We’re in pretty good shape.”.

Kramer will start left-hander Victor Salazar, who pitched two thirds of an inning Wednesday night after picking up the win in relief of Cirillo Sunday night in a 14-5 rout of Glendale, Ariz.

The sophomore from Providence High gave up two hits in four innings against Glendale.