Pivotal Week for Wilson in Try for Double Play

Long Beach Wilson’s baseball team went 20 years between Moore League titles before the Bruins tied for the championship last year.

This season, Wilson is hoping to win the league title outright. And this week is pivotal.

On Wednesday night, Wilson, 12-3 overall and 8-0 in league play, beat perennial Southern Section power Long Beach Millikan, 10-0, in a Moore League game at Blair Field. On Friday, the Bruins travel to Millikan (14-4, 6-2).

Wilson is led by senior third baseman Sean Burroughs, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound third baseman who began the week batting .455 with three homers and 15 runs batted in. Burroughs, the son of former major leaguer Jeff Burroughs, has signed a letter of intent with USC and is regarded as one of the Southland’s top professional prospects. He is one of several Wilson players who were members of the Long Beach Little League World Series championship teams in 1992 and 1993.

Pitcher Kevin Miller was 4-0 with a 1.30 earned-run average and was batting .353.

“We have good players, that’s why we’re doing well,” said Wilson Coach Mark Clabough, in his fourth season with the Bruins. “These kids like to play the game, and they’re working hard at it.”

Last year, Wilson tied Millikan and Lakewood for the league title and went into the Division I playoffs as the league’s top-seeded team. But the Bruins lost in the second round to Millikan, 9-8, in nine innings after blowing a 7-2 lead. Millikan advanced to the championship game and lost to Anaheim Esperanza.

“This year, we’re hoping to win the league outright, and if we can take care of Millikan this week we can do that,” Clabough said. “Once this week is over, we’re done with Lakewood and Millikan.”

At least, until the playoffs.

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Van Nuys Montclair Prep set a state record for runs in a game with its 54-1 victory over Pilgrim on Tuesday.

The old Southern Section record of 45 runs was set by Whittier against Garden Grove in 1922. The state record was held by San Diego Parker, which scored 53 runs against Escondido Calvin Christian in 1985.

Montclair Prep’s victory came in four innings.