South Halts Late Charge From North

With the way West Hills Chaminade has been playing--14-1 this season--is it any wonder the winning team in an American Legion All-Star baseball game had seven players from Chaminade?

Not really.

The surprise of the District 20 Division II game for players under 18 was that the star came from another school.

Ryan Burke, a junior infielder at Canyon High, had a pair of two-run doubles to help the South fend off the North, 14-13, Monday in a game at Chatsworth High that went 12 innings, as agreed upon beforehand.

Burke’s second two-run double, in the top of the 12th, proved to be the game-winning hit and extended Chaminade Coach Scott Drootin’s run during the Legion season.

“I’m happy about that, but we also had six Canyon players and they’re pretty good,” said Drootin, co-coach of the South. “It was nice to have that combination.”

He almost wasn’t so ecstatic at the end.

The North trailed, 14-9, entering the bottom of the 12th but scored four runs, two on a two-run double by Joe Booterbaugh of Palmdale and two more on a throwing error by Burke.

The North had runners on first and third with two out, but Matt Monette was thrown out at home on an attempted double steal.

“We almost had it there at the end,” said Lancaster Coach Doug Bain, co-coach of the North. “We knew they were into their sixth or seventh pitcher and we had some good hitters coming up. We were right where we wanted to be. It almost worked.”

Chaminade players were strong throughout the game.

Starter T.J. Franco pitched two shutout innings and Bobby Paschal picked up the save. Erik Johnson started the game with a home run off Lancaster pitcher Tyler Bain. Johnson, a senior, used a wooden bat and hit the ball nearly 400 feet.

Jim Rapoport, a sophomore at Chaminade, had a double in the fifth inning.

The South had 17 hits.

“I was happy with the way we swung the bat,” Drootin said.

The North had 21 hits, including a home run by Andy Warren of Saugus that sparked a five-run third inning and tied the score, 5-5.