Villa Park Reaches Section Title Game

Villa Park made the most of its second chance Wednesday afternoon.

Brandon Averill had three hits and three runs batted in, and his younger brother, Erik, picked up his sixth victory of the season as the visiting Spartans defeated Covina Charter Oak, 10-5, in a Southern Section Division III semifinal game.

Villa Park (28-2) advances to its first section baseball title game on Saturday, when it will meet top-seeded West Torrance (29-1) at 10 a.m. at Dodger Stadium.

Many in Friday’s capacity crowd at Charter Oak were upset by the fact that the Spartans were even there.

Second-seeded Villa Park had lost to Tustin, 7-1, in a quarterfinal game last week, but the Tillers were disqualified by the section office for using an ineligible player, an announcement that was made on Tuesday just moments before they were to take the field at Charter Oak. Villa Park was ordered to replace Tustin and the semifinal was postponed a day.

Villa Park jumped at the opportunity to get back in the title hunt.

“We knew when we got our second chance that we were going to take it all,” Erik Averill (6-0) said. “When we found out about it [Tuesday], we got all pumped up. The adrenaline was going. We really wanted it.”

Charter Oak Coach Richard Escalera agreed. Villa Park really wanted this game; Charter Oak didn’t.

“What happened [to Tustin] truly affected us tremendously,” Escalera said. “Villa Park is a great ballclub. Take nothing away from them, but Christmas came early for them. All the pressure was on us.

“It was tough for our guys to come back after what happened and get ready to play. We had prepared for Tustin for days and now we had no time to prepare for another team.”

Villa Park got six hits in the third inning to take a 5-0 lead, and Brandon Averill’s solo home run helped push the score to 7-0 in the fifth inning. Charter Oak scored four runs on four hits and a Spartan error in the bottom of the inning, but Villa Park responded with three runs in the sixth.

“Five runs, that’s tough to rebound from,” Escalera said.

Villa Park Coach Tom Tereschuk agreed his team’s second chance may have played a key role in the game’s outcome.

“It allowed us to play a little looser than we had been playing,” he said, “and we came out here and had fun.”

Erik Averill relieved starter Danny Reid with two outs in the third inning after the Chargers had loaded the bases. Averill got Marco Manrique to fly out to center.

Charter Oak finished 22-8.