Burbank 8-10 All-Stars baseball eliminated in Section 2 tourney
It was experience, or lack of it, that proved to be the downfall of the Burbank 8-10 All-Stars Little League team in the the Section 2 Tournament.
Competing against older teams with more seasoned players, Burbank lost two straight games in the tournament over the weekend at Northridge City Little league, putting an end to its season.
Burbank, the District 16 champion, opened Saturday with 28-9 loss to Sherman Oaks of District 40 and was eliminated from the tournament Sunday after an 18-6 defeat at the hands of Quartz Hill, the District 51 representative.
“We are a younger team primarily made up of 9 year olds,” Burbank coach Chris Montgomery said. “This is an 8-9-10 division and most of the other Little League teams are older in this division with a lot more 10 year olds than we have.
“We just don’t have the talent pool that a lot of these other cities have because of our park and rec program. But for our program to get to the level it did with this team is extraordinary. We are proud of how far we were able to make it. …They represented Burbank really well. ”
In the opening game, Sherman Oaks jumped in front early by scoring 11 runs the in the top of the first inning. But Burbank battled back and made it 11-6 in the bottom of the first. Burbank couldn’t hold off Sherman Oaks, which was able to pull away.
“What was different for us and a little bit of a problem is a lot of these teams that we played are used to playing on Astro Turf,” Montgomery said. “We are used to dirt and grass. Instead of the grass absorbing the ball and taking some speed off the ball, the artificial surface actually gives the ball more speed and it’s tough to deal with when you don’t play on that.
“But I give credit to Sherman Oaks, they have a really good team from a really good organization and they played really well. It just came down to our kids making come crucial errors and they were able to pull away from there.”
Against Quartz Hill, Burbank tried to make a game of it but fatigue ended up being a factor in the defeat.
“I think our kids were just exhausted after playing a lot of baseball at that point,” Montgomery said. “In the end, we were just outplayed. I take my hat off to Quartz Hill because they played well.”
Montgomery singled out Jeremy Lee as playing well in the two games for Burbank.
“Jeremy cleared the bases a few times, including in that last game where he had a triple,” Montgomery said. “He did that the first game as well with a triple. He swung the bat well for us.”
Twitter: @jefftsports
