La Crescenta Babe Ruth 15 team eliminated by Westchester

For nearly the first half of its game Tuesday night, the members of the La Crescenta 15-year-old Babe Ruth team appeared to have things in order.

Unfortunately for La Crescenta, it lost its traction and saw its season come to a close with a 15-5 loss against Westchester in an elimination contest of the Babe Ruth Southern California State Tournament at Kendall Field in Torrance. The game was called in the bottom of the sixth inning because of the 10-run mercy rule.

“We got off to a great start and we were able to hang in there,” La Crescenta Coach Glenn Pawlik said. “We just ran out of gas.”

La Crescenta, playing its third game in five days, opened the five-team, double-elimination tournament with a 3-1 win against Westchester on Friday. La Crescenta then suffered a 14-6 loss to Torrance on Monday, forcing them to play an elimination game with the winner advancing to the championship game against Torrance on Thursday.

La Crescenta jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first. A single by Kenny Berrara scored Haston Pawlik to make it 1-0 before Justin Rountree tripled home Berrara to extend the advantage to 2-0.

La Crescenta made it 3-0 in the second when Thadeus Wilson hit a triple to plate Brady Soper.

But Westchester tied it at 3 in the third before La Crescenta regained the lead at 4-3 in the fourth when Pawlik drove in Mario Garcia with a single.

Westchester bounced back with four runs in the fourth to make it 7-4. Westchester scored three more runs in the fifth to extend its advantage to 10-4.

“Our pitching was spent, especially from playing Monday,” Glenn Pawlik said.

La Crescenta trimmed the lead to 10-5 when Wes Fauru scored on an error in the sixth. Westchester then scored five runs in the sixth to complete the scoring.

Pawlik finished with three hits for La Crescenta, which got two apiece from Wilson and Berrara.

Glenn Pawlik said La Crescenta accomplished a lot during the season.

“We did a lot of good things this year,” Pawlik said. “I like the way they showed class and character.”