Season Ends for PPBA All-Stars

BY STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor 

It is difficult to defeat a good team three times in one season and the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association’s Mustang 10U All-Star team was trying to do just that Tuesday in the last game of the PONY Section Tournament at the Field of Dreams.

Troy Winkenhower hit a solo home run to tie it 1-1 in the bottom of the first inning, but East Long Beach took control from that point  and earned a berth in the Super Region playoffs with a 9-4 victory — its first win in four tries against Palisades this season.

“We played pretty well the first couple innings, but we didn’t get enough bats on the ball today and we made a few mistakes,” head coach Jim Ford said. “We got a lot better. We couldn’t beat that team last year and this year we beat them twice and tied them another time. That team won the World Series as 8-year-olds.”

Julian Orozco pitched all six innings and Owen Gott hit two homers for East Long Beach, which joins Section winner Torrance American at the Super Region tournament in San Marcos.

Davis White singled to score pinch runner Julian Milner and Caden Abraham singled to score White to cut Palisades’ deficit to 8-3 in the fourth, but East Long Beach added a run in the fifth.

After Sean Nguyen made a diving catch in right field to end the top of the sixth inning, Palisades mounted a rally in the bottom half.

After Abraham reached base on a dropped third strike, Jack Richman walked and Tommy Farmer doubled to score Abraham.

Palisades started the tournament strong thanks to birthday boy Abraham, who pitched 5 2/23 innings with six strikeouts and hit two doubles in last Thursday’s 7-3 victory over Lynwood.

Winkenhower homered to left in the first inning, Abraham stole home in the third and Winkenhower scored on a line drive to first base.

In the fifth, Abraham scored on a fielder’s choice, Jake Grossman scored on White’s RBI single and Winkenhower scored on an errant pick-off throw. 

Palisades was forced into a rematch with East Long Beach after falling to Torrance American 12-2 in five innings in the winner’s bracket final Sunday night.

C.W. Ford walked to load the bases and Abraham scored Palisades’ first run on a ball in the dirt.   In the fourth, Richman scored from third on an errant pick-off throw Henry Wendorf and Finn Johnson also got hits for Palisades.

Led by Nate Aguilar, who hit 18 homer runs in the regular season, Torrance outscored its three opponents 35-3 to take first place.

Perhaps the most exciting game of the tournament was Palisades’ 6-4 semifinal triumph over East Long Beach.

Winkenhower, who walked his first three times up, blasted a towering two-run walk-off homer to left field in the sixth.

“I was just trying to get my bat on the ball and advance the runner,” said Winkenhower, who played for the Orioles in the regular season and attends Corpus Christi School along with Brendan Gardner. “I saw a high pitch, I liked it, I hit it and it went out. I knew I got all of it.”

Abraham and Richman hit back-to-back doubles to give Palisades a 2-1 lead in the second, Grossman singled to score Finn in the third and Winkenhower’s bases-loaded walk forced home James Rockwell to give Palisades a 4-2 lead in the fourth.

Hosting two tournaments simultaneously is hard enough, but bad weather Saturday and Sunday  made getting all the games completed even tougher for PPBA Commissioner Bob Benton and his maintenance crew.

“Who could’ve ever predicted we’d get this kind of rain in the middle of July?” he lamented.

Benton said heavy rains the night before left the fields unplayable Sunday and games might have been postponed if not for the efforts of Ford, Dan Johnson, Wink Winkenhower and 12U head coach Joe Collins.

“Jim drove over to Harvard-Westlake [in Studio City] early this morning to get a truckload of dry dirt,” Benton said. “Otherwise, the infields would’ve been too muddy to play on.”

When play resumed, Palisades’ 12U squad took on Cheviot Hills in an elimination game and fell behind 10-0 before rallying for six runs in the final two innings of an 11-6 defeat.

“Maybe we didn’t play our best this weekend but this is the strongest West Region I’ve seen in eight years — these were all good teams,” said Collins, whose  squad finished the all-star season with a 17-4-1 record. “We made some errors today and came back, we just dug too deep a hole.”

Jack Hassett scored on a groundout by pinch hitter Chris Stimming, then Alec Morrison belted a two-run homer to left field in the fifth. In Palisades’ next at-bat, Lane Johnson scored on a fielder’s choice by Cooper Morrow and Stimming hit a two-RBI single down the right field line.

In its opener last Wednesday, Palisades needed only six innings to beat Norwalk 16-6.

Norwalk took a 3-0 lead in the first inning but Palisades answered with three of its own in the top of the second on Jake Moore’s bases-clearing double to the center field fence.

In the third, Charlie Collins singled to score Hassett, Cooper Robinson doubled to score Collins and Morrow hit a sacrifice fly to give Palisades a 6-3 lead. Collins and Johnson had RBI hits in the fourth and Joe Grode doubled to score Connor Colao in the fifth.  Grode scored on an error, Robinson doubled to score Hassett and Robinson scored on an error to make it 13-5.

Morrison had an RBI single, Grode had an RBI double and Ryan Kennedy had an RBI single in the sixth to close the scoring.

Colao had four strikeouts in three innings and Griffin Milner pitched the last three innings, striking out the side in the fifth.

In the semifinals of the winner’s bracket, Palisades fell 9-7 to eventual champion East Long Beach. Both teams scored four runs in the third inning.

Colao scored on a single by Grode, Morrison and Grode scored on a single by Hassett and Hassett scored on a single by Johnson. In the fifth, Palisades scored on a balk and Johnson hit a solo homer in the seventh.

Eleven players on the 12U roster, along with PPBA Bronco Will Lawrence, will travel to New York Aug. 1-7 for the Cooperstown Tournament.

While the PPBA’s 10U and 12U All-Stars were hosting their  Section tournaments, the Bronco 11U squad was in Whittier for the Super Region Tournament.

Coached by Bruce Wallin, the team consisted of Jack Gurevitch, Jack Bowden, Dylan Tatum, Wylie Wallin, Skyler Chang, Marty Kaplan, Holden Gering, Lucas Herman, Alex Denham, Henry Roth, Owen Roy, Andrew Citron and Truman Pauley.

In its first game, Palisades had 12 hits in a 12-8 loss to Simi Valley. Herman ad Citron each had had three hits, Herman and Gurevitch each had two RBIs and Pauley had five strikeouts on the hill.

Facing elimination, Palisades was unable to get the bats going in Saturday’s 7-3 loss to Newport Harbor.

Pauley had two strikeouts in five innings and Gurevitch had two RBIs.