Frias leads team to final

Charles Rich

They’ve set up their three-man pitching rotation for a run at a

championship.

The first leg of the trifecta passed with flying colors as

Fernando Frias pitched a complete game to lead Crescenta Valley to an

11-2 victory against Tujunga in the second-chance bracket final of

the Little League District 16 Junior Baseball All-Star Tournament at

Tujunga Field on Friday.

CV (2-1) will face Jewish War Veterans at 5 p.m. today in the

championship game in the 13- and 14-year-old division at Tujunga

Field. An if-necessary game would be played at 5 p.m. Sunday at

Tujunga Field.

CV dropped a 10-5 decision Wednesday to JWV (2-0) at Scholl Canyon

Park.

Frias, a right-hander, tossed a two-hitter and struck out seven to

keep CV on track. Tujunga (1-2) didn’t record a hit until the fifth

inning and Frias kept Tujunga off balance with a strong curve ball.

“It’s a big thing to have our pitchers go the distance,” CV Coach

Domenic Bianco said. “We’ve got three good pitchers in Fernando,

Taylor Smale and Alex Crum. This was one of Fernando’s best games and

we still have a chance at the title.”

Frias helped stake himself to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first

inning with a run-scoring single. Frias, who finished with a

game-high three hits, also drove in a pair of runs in the second with

a single to extend CV’s lead to 6-0.

CV, which took advantage of four Tujunga errors, batted around

twice before Tujunga’s No. 9 hitter came to bat.

“We’d been playing flawless offense and defense up to today,”

Tujunga Coach Sid Stark said. “We came out lethargic for some reason

and we didn’t show up until the fifth inning. We didn’t put the ball

in play enough like we had in our previous two games.”

Bianco said he lost the coin flip to determine which squad would

serve as the home team. Bianco said he was glad to lose the outcome.

“Our club can be too loose for me sometimes,” Bianco said. “We

just let them go out and play. It was big to get those four runs

right away for Fernando and we could relax.”

Michael Kwak finished with two hits for CV. Teammate Aaron

Cornacchio stole a pair of bases and reached base safely four times.