Medaglia Pick Offs Win for West All-Stars

Like most of his teammates, Joey Medaglia stood along the railing of the West dugout in the bottom of the ninth inning of the District 20 All-Star Game on Sunday, trying to stir up a rally.

Medaglia’s revelry was broken when West Coach Tom Pedersen yelled his name. Medaglia looked at Pedersen with a blank stare.

“I didn’t know what he wanted at first,” said Medaglia, an outfielder from Agoura who had exited the game in the fifth inning.

What he wanted was for Medaglia to re-enter the game at first base as a pinch-runner, and in the blink of an eye, Medaglia was picked off by East pitcher Sean Henson.

Henson’s throw, however, was in the dirt and eluded first baseman Robert Flores and Medaglia scooted to third, where one out later he scored on a double by Joe Tushnet to hand the West a 6-5 victory at Birmingham High.

It marked a reprieve for both Medaglia and West, which appeared to have the game in the bag, leading 5-2 entering the ninth. But Harold Turk surrendered a single to Henson and walked Marlon McKinney and Chris Prince to load the bases with none out.

A balk, sacrifice fly and Brian Esquival’s clutch run-scoring single tied the game, 5-5.

Kendial Armstrong started the final West comeback, reaching base on a fielding error then leaving in favor of Medaglia, who scored the winning run.

First-round pairings for the district playoffs, which open Tuesday, were issued after the game. First, however, Panorama City (17-5) must play Verdugo Hills in a make-up game today at 5 at Monroe High.

If Panorama City wins, it will play Quartz Hill (18-5) on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Birmingham. If Panorama City loses, it plays Woodland Hills East (19-4) at Birmingham at 12:30 p.m.

Woodland Hills West (19-4) will play Lancaster (16-7) at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Pierce College. Top-seeded Sun Valley (19-4) plays its first-round game Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. against Newhall-Saugus (15-8) at Birmingham.