Little League chaos reigns
GLENDALE — Whether due to forces of nature or rites of passage, staging the early rounds of the Little League baseball and softball tournaments currently underway over diamonds across the area has been anything but easy.
Early Tuesday a water main broke under one of the baseball fields at Scholl Canyon Park threatening postponements of tournament games and the Junior Softball Tournament has been hampered by conflicts with middle school graduation events.
“I am told they expected it to be a fairly quick repair and that it wasn’t going to impact us beyond [Wednesday], so we’ll see,” District 16 Commissioner Dave Ritchie said of the plumbing issues at Scholl Canyon. “I have a feeling that maybe it was because of the earthquake. I know the ground moves up there quite a bit. There’s always settling and stuff and it’s a new sprinkler system they just put in last year.”
It appears all of the above will be nothing more than a minor glitch, as play resumes in force starting with a full slate of games today.
The marquee matchup of the day figures to be the Major Baseball Tri-Cities Tournament winner’s bracket matchup between CV Rountree and CV Gangi at 5 p.m. at Pacific Park.
“[Tonight] is a big night,” Ritchie said. “The really big matchup is gonna be CV No. 2 playing CV No. 1. That should be a great game.”
The two teams just played for their league championship Saturday night in a close 3-2 game that Rountree lost with two runners in scoring position.
Three other Major Baseball Tri-Cities games are on tap for today with Foothill South Beach taking on the Tujunga Cardinals at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific Park and loser’s bracket games between the Vaquero Cougars and the Burbank Expos at 5 p.m. at Scholl Canyon Park followed by the Burbank Bulldogs and Jewel City/Jewish War Veterans at 7:30 p.m. at the same venue.
The Minor Baseball Tri-Cities Tournament also continues today with winner’s bracket contests between Foothill’s Tommy’s and Two Guys (7:30 p.m.) and Foothill Light House JC/JWC Extreme Heat (5:15 p.m.) set for Tujunga.
A regular-season makeup game had to be played in order to determine seeding for the Junior Baseball Tri-Cities Tournament, which will begin on Saturday instead of its originally scheduled Wednesday opening.
Opening-round games between CV Kitchen and Kelly & Small and Vaquero Express and the Burbank Bulldogs will be played at Scholl Canyon Park at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., respectively.
Rosemont middle school’s graduation festivities forced the postponement of one Junior Softball Tri-Cities Tournament game on Wednesday, as CV Purist and the Tujunga Crush will make up their game at 5 p.m. today at Pelanconi Park.
In Major Softball Tri-Cities Tournament action, the heavily-favored and undefeated Burbank Lady Legends will face Foothill in a winner’s bracket contest at Scholl Canyon Park at 7:30 p.m. today after the CV Red Hots and CV Sanfillipo face off in a loser’s bracket game at 5 p.m.
The Minor Softball Tri-Cities Tournament will begin on Saturday with three games each at Pelanconi Park and Scholl Canyon Park.