Valley Dodgers Stumble, 8-0, in First Round of Tournament

After enduring a long trip halfway across the country, the San Fernando Valley Dodgers may have yet a tougher road to travel in the National Baseball Congress World Series.

The Dodgers opened play in the 32-team double-elimination tournament Saturday night and stumbled flat, losing to the Wichita Broncos, 8-0, in a game shortened to seven innings by a six-run rule. The defeat snapped a seven-game Dodgers winning streak and forces them to slug their way through the losers’ bracket of the tournament, beginning Wednesday against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.

The Dodgers (22-8) will have familiar company in the consolation bracket; the Ventura County Royals also lost Saturday, falling to defending national champion Liberal (Kan), 7-2.

Before a paid crowd of 7,139 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, the Dodgers were overwhelmed by Wichita (48-12), the tournament’s fourth-seeded team. Every Bronco in the lineup had at least one hit in the team’s 16-hit attack that included 15 singles off three Dodger pitchers.

Valley’s Randy Cina (6-1) started and yielded four runs on 10 hits in 3 innings, and Steve Stark allowed four more runs on six hits in 1 innings. Shawn Denton was the only Dodger pitcher to escape unscathed, retiring the only two batters he faced.