PPBA 9U All-Stars Win Padilla Invitational

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Knowing its season is winding down, the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association’s Mustang 9U All-Star squad is determined to finish the summer strong.

Several weeks after getting knocked out of the Pony District playoffs by Los Alamitos, the local team bounced back to win the Padilla Invitational Tournament last weekend in Oxnard.

The roster of Ford Casady, Lars Refnes, Boone Casady, Will Monaco, Wyatt Foster, Tribe Edwards, Duke Badt, Finny Viles, Lukas Lin and Sean Gilhooly won four games and tied one to earn the first place trophy against a mix of All-Star and travel ball squads.   

The PPBA 9U team began the tournament Saturday afternoon facing the host El Rio All-Stars and the teams battled to a 7-7 tie.

Later that same day Palisades enjoyed one of its most complete games of the summer, racking up 17 hits with no errors to rout the Conejo Valley Little League All- Stars 15-2.

Boone Casady was the player of game, going three-for-three with three RBIs, one walk and glovework at third base that far exceeded his age. With one win and tie Palisades advanced to Sunday’s single-elimination championship bracket.

First up was the SoCal Slugges, a travel team from the Foothills that displayed strong defense. The PPBA youngsters prevailed 3-0 thanks to four shutout innings by Foster and a clutch relief effort in the fifth inning by Edwards after the 90-minute time limit expired.

In the afternoon the PPBA team played the Thousand Oaks All-Stars and the game was full of diving catches, back-handed plays up the middle and catchers throwing bunters out at first base.

Edwards had another suberb outing on the mound, pitching  four strong shutout innings.  Refnes came in for a two-inning save to preserve another 3-0 win.Offensively, Finny Viles led the way with a two-run double and Foster added an RBI single.

In the championship game on Sunday afternoon, Palisades faced another travel team, SDot Elite, consisting of players from Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo.

SDot jumped ahead 2-0 in the first inning and held it until Lin’s RBI single to right field in the third inning. Lin scored the tying run on Ford Casady’s double.

Refnes once again was light’s out on the mound, holding SDot Elite to just the two runs in his three innings of work.

The game stayed deadlocked through the fourth and fifth innings thanks to Ford Casady’s two innings of one-hit relief with a pair of strikeouts. He led off the top of the sixth inning with a single and advanced to second on a walk by Refnes. After two strikeouts, Foster got in an 0-2 hole but fouled off a few pitches before lacing a single to right field. Ford Casady slid under the tag at home to give Palisades a 3-2 lead and Monaco took the hill to face the top of the batting order. After a bunt single  the second batter popped out to Ford Casady at shortstop. Casady  knocked down a line drive headed for the outfield to prevent the lead runner from advancing to third. Monaco struck out the clean up hitter, then calmly threw out the final batter on a come-backer.

Palisades (13-7-2) closes out the All-Star season at the Encino Tournament July 27-28.