Conejo Valley Dispatched to Showers Early : American Legion: District 16 entrant suffers first tournament loss, bowing to Culver City, 11-1, in shortened game.

No matter what the outcome of Conejo Valley’s next game in the American Legion playoffs, Coach Craig Sturges can take heart in the knowledge that his players have a bright future in baseball.

Culver City scored six runs in the second inning and pounded out 13 hits Friday en route to an 11-1 win that put Conejo Valley on the brink of elimination in the 6th Area tournament at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The game was shortened to seven innings because of the 10-run rule.

Sturges is content because Conejo Valley, which qualified with a District 16 playoff win over Westlake on Tuesday, is a young team that has 12 players who will be seniors at Thousand Oaks High in the fall. The only player who won’t be eligible for next season is Chris Grodell, who will be a redshirt freshman at USC in the fall.

“Heck, we aren’t even supposed to be here, so this is the icing on the cake,” Sturges said.

Culver City starter Dennis Heineman (5-0), a right-hander who will be a sophomore at Santa Monica College, limited Conejo Valley to five hits and struck out seven. Conejo Valley went into the game batting .350.

“He’s the first kid to shut us down all season,” Sturges said. “He never let us get off the dime.”

Culver City (13-2), the District 24 champion, will meet Woodland Hills West today at 9 a.m. in the third round of the double-elimination tournament. Conejo Valley (23-10), the District 16 runner-up, will meet Camarillo today at 12:30 p.m. Camarillo was defeated by Claremont, 5-2, Friday.

Conejo Valley starter Jeff Naster (6-3) struggled with his control from the outset. Culver City parlayed five consecutive hits, a walk, and an error into six runs in the second.

Culver City loaded the bases with one out on a walk, an error and a single, then Brian Dennis’ popup fell in short left-center field to score a run and give Culver City a 2-1 lead. Kevin Dell’Amico followed with what appeared to be a double-play grounder, but the ball bounced over second baseman Ryan Kritscher’s head and into right field to score two runs.

Mauricio Estavil singled to load the bases again, and Heineman followed with a bloop double down the right-field line that scored two more runs and extended Culver City’s lead to 6-1. Roger Packard followed with a sacrifice fly to deep right field.

Culver City added a run in the third when Jesse Johnson was hit by a pitch, stole second, advanced to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch. In the seventh, Dell’Amico singled with two out and Estavil doubled to left to extend the lead to 9-1.

Conejo Valley had taken a 1-0 lead in the first when Kritscher singled, and, one out later, scored on Brent Christenson’s double. Conejo Valley left the bases loaded in the second and failed to take advantage of two Culver City errors leading off the fifth.