Crescenta Valley, Burbank Major baseball District 16 championship game suspended
GLENDALE — For most of Tuesday night, it appeared that the Crescenta Valley and Burbank Major baseball all-star teams would be in line for some suspense in the championship game of the District 16 Tournament.
Suspense turned into suspension after four sprinklers on the infield at Babe Herman Field went on automatically at 10 p.m. It puts plans on hold for a possible celebration by Burbank, which needed three outs to extend its season. It also put Crescenta Valley in a waiting mode to see if it can provide a dramatic comeback attempt.
After the sprinklers left the pitcher’s mound completely soaked and most of the infield wet, tournament officials decided to suspend the game until 6 p.m. Wednesday. Visiting Burbank leads, 2-1, with one out in the top of the sixth and a CV runner on first base.
A Crescenta Valley victory would force an if-necessary championship game shortly thereafter at the same location.
“There’s nothing you can do about it,” Burbank Coach Giovanni Zamora said. “We know what we have to do.
“We want to try to get some more runs and then get those last three outs.”
Before the odd interruption, the game featured a stellar pitchers’ duel between Burbank’s Carter Kessinger and Crescenta Valley’s Justyn Chang.
Kessinger recorded 10 strikeouts and limited Crescenta Valley to three hits. Chang went 5 1/3 innings, striking out nine and yielding five hits.
Tournament officials and the three umpires decided that it was wise to suspend the game because of player safety.
For Crescenta Valley Coach Tom Harbolt, it marked the second time in the tournament that one of his games was stopped because of the sprinklers. The first episode occurred Saturday during an opening-round contest against Foothill-Jewel City. The game resumed Sunday with Crescenta Valley posting a 15-13 victory before suffering a 15-3 defeat against Burbank later Sunday.
“It’s almost like a normal occurrence with this happening to us,” Harbolt said. “You deal with it.
“Now, we at least know what we have to do in finishing up this game. We have our Nos. 3-5 hitters [Chang, Colin Jacobs and Eli Weber] set to bat in the sixth.”
Burbank took a 1-0 lead in the first on a run-scoring single by Blaine Traxel that scored Max Meltzer.
Burbank made it 2-0 in the fourth on a two-out single by Chris Magoon.
Gabe Kessell hit a solo home run to lead off the fourth to cut the deficit to 2-1.
