Burbank Juniors win Section2 slugfest

JUNIOR BASEBALL

Burbank 19, Encino 14

A three hour, 33-minute baseball game that saw both teams bat around twice ended in favor of District 16 champion Burbank (4-1), which opened the Section 2 tournament with a victory Saturday afternoon at the Northridge baseball complex.

Burbank earned advancement to Sunday’s second round against District 17 champion San Marino National (5-0) at 9 a.m.

Burbank opened the game in style with a nine-run first inning fueled by six hits, two walks and two hit batters.

Connor Lockheimer (three runs and one RBI) and Tony Argenziano both delivered two-run doubles in the inning, while Argenziano doubled twice in the game and finished three for four with four runs and two RBI.

Burbank leadoff batter Tanner Whitlock also aided his squad with four walks and four runs scored.

Burbank added five runs in the third inning behind four hits and two walks, including run-scoring singles from Randy Catlett, Jared Whaley and Fischer Cabot.

The five runs gave Burbank a 14-5 advantage.

Yet, Burbank struggled to put away a pesky Encino team that scored three runs in the following top half inning to avoid the possibility of a mercy-rule decision.

“We don’t really have problems scoring runs. Coming into this game we lost, 15-14, and then we won 24-14 [in the district round] and now you see us with a 19-14 score,” Burbank Manager Mike Lockheimer said.

“We’ve been hitting the ball hard enough, but we can’t seem to pitch or play defense behind that offense. If we could pitch, then we’d have something.”

— Andrew J. Campa

MAJOR BASEBALL

Crescenta Valley 16, Encino 5

Brian Erickson led off the game with a home run for District 16-champion Crescenta Valley, a foreshadowing of things to come for a squad that scored early and often against District 40 representative Encino on Saturday night at El Dorado Little League.

Michael Choi also contributed a three-run blast and Jaime Blank had a solo shot to go with a three-for-three day for Lucas Martos-Repath.

Crescenta Valley scored once in the first inning and twice in the second before going up, 7-1, in the third. By the fourth it was 10-3 and Crescenta Valley blew the game open with six more runs in the fifth.

“We had contributions for this team from top to bottom,” CV Coach Mike Vinceri said. “Our bottom of the order started swinging the bats.

“It really was a complete game by these guys.”

Crescenta Valley will play District 51-champion Quartz Hill Sunday at 6 p.m.

Gabriel Rizk