West Survives Errors in City All-Star Win

High school seniors can be forgiven in mid-June for keeping one eye on graduation and one eye on the future.

So the senior high school baseball players who gathered Friday night at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium for the second City Section All-Star game can also be forgiven for taking their eyes off the ball.

A total of 12 errors were committed as the West edged the East, 7-6, in a game that stretched the definition of the term “all-star.”

Game most valuable players were pitchers Mike Busby of Banning for the West and Cody Beaumaster of Kennedy for the East, but each had left the game long before most of the mistakes were made.

The West, comprised primarily of South Bay schools, along with El Camino Real and Chatsworth, scored the winning run, appropriately enough, when El Camino Real’s Greg Lederman’s ground ball to short was mishandled for an error in the eighth inning.

The West could also go home knowing that it had committed fewer errors (five) than the East (seven). The East team was comprised of all Valley schools.

The game was dominated early by outstanding pitching, however.

Busby steamrollered through the first two innings, striking out five of the East’s first six batters. But Busby was betrayed by his infield in the third and the East scored two runs.

Busby re-established his dominance in the fourth, striking out the side to end his performance on the mound with eight strikeouts, two hits and one earned run.

The East extended its lead to 3-0 in the top of the fifth, again with the help of some poor West defense. But the East, too, showed that it was perfectly capable of having trouble in the field, committing three errors in the fifth as the West went ahead, 4-3.

The West extended its lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh with the help of two more errors. Lederman singled against Kennedy’s Mike McMullen to open the inning. Palisades’ Greg Weber then singled to left field, and when Lederman tried to take third, East left fielder James Encinas of Sylmar overthrew third base.

Lederman trotted home and Weber took third. Banning’s Jeff Harris plated Weber with a single through a drawn-in infield and the West led, 6-3.