City 3-A Baseball Final : Bell Takes Advantage of Venice’s Errors, 7-5

It was surprising enough that Venice High School’s three-year reign as City 3-A champion came to an end Thursday at Dodger Stadium, but it was downright shocking how it happened.

Venice, known for its strong fundamentals, made enough errors and mental mistakes against Bell to last a season. The result was a 7-5 Bell victory that gave the Eagles their first baseball title in the 62-year history of the school.

Bell (25-4), co-champion of the Eastern League, scored two unearned runs with the help of two Venice errors in the top of the seventh inning to increase its lead to 7-4.

The runs turned out to be important as Venice (22-8), champion of the Western League, scored one run in the bottom of the inning and had the bases loaded with two out. But reliever Jesse Aldana got Chico Garcia to hit a bouncer in front of the plate that Aldana fielded and threw to catcher Fidencio Gonzales for a game-ending force.

Venice first baseman Fred Smith made two errors on one play in the first inning that helped give the Eagles a 2-0 lead.

After Gil McDonough singled, Ricardo Curiel tried to sacrifice him to second. Catcher Chris Zarate picked up Curiel’s bunt, but Smith dropped the throw that would have retired Curiel. Smith then picked up the ball and threw wildly trying to get McDonough at third, allowing Curiel to make it to second.

McDonough scored on Lucio Chaidez’s wild pitch on ball four to Alfredo Leal, and Curiel scored one batter later on a ground ball to shortstop. Smith took the throw to retire Bobby Magallanes at first, but apparently forgot about Curiel edging down the line from third and did not think of trying to throw him out at home until Curiel was nearing the plate.

Bell led, 4-0, going into the bottom of the third when Venice erupted for four runs. Eric Crawford’s two-run double and Ernie Soto’s two-run home run to left were the big hits.

Bell came right back with a run to take the lead for good in the top of the fourth.

With one out, McDonough singled and took second on a ground out. Losing pitcher Garcia (4-1) then threw a wild pitch and McDonough raced all the way from second to score, just beating Zarate’s throw from near the backstop to Garcia covering home.

Roland Villasenor and John Camacho misplayed grounders in the top of the seventh for the Gondoliers’ fourth and fifth errors, which turned out to be costly when Marvin Bernard singled in two runs with two outs.