Encino-Crespi’s 5-0 Lead Fades Into 10-10 Tie

Encino-Crespi and Woodland Hills East were looking to extend winning streaks when they played each other in an American Legion District 20 showdown Friday at Pierce College.

Encino-Crespi had a 12-game winning streak; Woodland Hills East had won 10 in a row. More importantly, both teams were battling for a wild-card playoff berth.

But after nine innings in which Encino-Crespi kept building a lead and Woodland Hills East kept tearing it down, no winner emerged from the gathering darkness.

With the score tied, 10-10, the game was called. Coaches from both sides said the game probably will not be replayed or completed.

“We talked before the game about playing only seven innings,” Encino-Crespi Coach Scott Muckey said. “I wish we had gone seven.”

That would have made Muckey’s team a winner. Encino-Crespi (15-6-1) scored five runs in the top of the first inning but still could not put the game away.

Woodland Hills East (14-6-1) fell behind, 7-2, after two innings, but managed to pull to within a run, 8-7, after six.

Not until the eighth, after Gabe Kapler’s leadoff home run, did Woodland Hills East pull even for the first time.

In the ninth, Encino-Crespi scored twice, only to watch Woodland Hills East answer with two runs in the bottom half.

“We weren’t going to be the ones to give,” Woodland Hills East co-Coach Michael Clouser said. “All season long we’ve been talking about how we have to come back and win these games.”

Woodland Hills East starter Justin Siegel, who was tagged for seven runs and four hits in the first two innings, settled down, retiring 12 batters in a row.

Mike Krasner relieved Siegel in the fourth and continued to prevent a big inning while Woodland Hills East climbed back into the game.