La Crescenta 14s can’t take two
NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Moments after the season concluded for the La Crescenta 14-year-old Babe Ruth All-Star team, Coach Manny Amit reflected briefly on the one inning that derailed his team.
“Looking back on it, we had just that one bad inning,” Amit said, referring to the second inning in which La Crescenta yielded eight runs en route to an 11-3 loss to Westchester on Monday night in the if-necessary championship game of the Babe Ruth State Tournament at Stengel Field. ‘It’s just one of those things and we just didn’t have the pitching.”
La Crescenta advanced to the if-necessary title game with an 8-2 win against Westchester earlier Monday, but could sustain the momentum to move on to the Pacific Southwest Regional, which will begin Aug. 3 in Surprise, Ariz.
Westchester enjoyed its big second inning as a pair of La Crescenta pitchers combined to walk six batters. Four of those batters scored to help Westchester build an 8-1 lead.
“If you look at the stats, you take away the walks and we are right there,” Amit said. “Walks are just one of those things.”
La Crescenta took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Chris Okimoto scored on a wild pitch. That was the last lead that La Crescenta enjoyed.
La Crescenta pushed across two runs in the third to cut the deficit to 8-3. Nick Diaz and Okimoto each scored on wild pitches.
Okimoto led La Crescenta with a team-high two hits. Westchester received a team-best two hits from Harrison McElroy.
In the championship game, La Crescenta scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 5-2 lead and two more in the fifth to make it 7-2.
Kyle Tremain had three hits for La Crescenta, while Jacob Yonan had a pair of hits and was the winning pitcher. Yonan threw a complete game, allowing five hits. Nolan Rea scored three runs for La Crescenta.
