Title game on hold
After learning Wednesday afternoon that the championship contest of the 44th annual Babe Herman Tournament would be postponed because of inclement weather, Crescenta Valley High baseball Coach Phil Torres immediately searched for a makeup date.
Crescenta Valley and Chatsworth were scheduled to participate in the title game Wednesday at Stengel Field, but rain fell overnight and throughout the morning and forced the contest to be postponed.
Torres said the title game will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 28 at Stengel. The tournament’s fifth-place game between Santa Monica and Torrance and third-place contest between Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Gahr at Stengel were also postponed Wednesday.
Torres said Santa Monica and Torrance would meet at 11 a.m., followed by Notre Dame and Gahr at 2 p.m. and then Crescenta Valley against Chatsworth.
Late Wednesday morning, Torres and Glendale Community College Coach Chris Cicuto tried to get the field in shape, but to no avail after a couple of more periods of rain.
“We were working on the field around 11 a.m. and then it started to rain pretty hard around noon,” said Torres, who added that all seven tournament games were called off Wednesday. “There was no sun or wind to help dry up the field, which had puddles around the infield and the foul lines were a mess.
“Bottom line, it wasn’t worth playing and having somebody getting hurt.”
In addition, tournament games at Redondo Union, Valley Christian and California were called off Wednesday. Torres said those games would be made up at a time and place agreed upon by the participating teams. The other makeup games will feature Birmingham against North Torrance, California versus Woodbridge and Valley Christian against El Camino Real. Redondo Union was set to meet Eastern (N.J.), but Eastern is scheduled to fly home today.
“We heard about a week in advance that there might be some rain,” said Torres, whose team has won five games in a row. “There just wasn’t anything we could do about the rain.”
Crescenta Valley (10-4) won the tournament’s National Division with victories against Eastern, Redondo Union and Notre Dame. Chatsworth (15-2-1) captured the American Division after posting wins against Woodbridge, Torrance and North Torrance. The Falcons have won the tournament a record eight times, including last season.
Torres said the Falcons have fared well through the first half of the season, winning eight of their last nine, including four in the Pacific League. The Falcons will next compete Saturday in a nonleague road doubleheader against San Diego Mater Dei.
“What’s been great for us lately is that we’ve played a lot of games and have been able to get into a rhythm,” Torres said. “Our pitchers have been able to get in their work and our hitters have gotten in their share of at-bats.
“That’s another good way for the team to build chemistry, because you always try to be playing your best toward the end [of the regular season].”
In addition, the rain also forced Glendale Community College’s baseball and softball teams to reshuffle their respective schedules.
Glendale college Sports Information Director Alex Leon said the baseball team’s Western State Conference Southern Division game against visiting West L.A. has been moved from 2:30 p.m. to 5 today at Stengel. The softball team’s Western State Conference Blue Division home game against Santa Monica City College, scheduled for today at the Glendale Sports Complex, was postponed and is tentatively scheduled to be played next week.
