CV can’t finish the deal

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Put those championship dreams on hold. The Crescenta Valley Major All-Stars baseball team didn’t play up to par, as it strayed from playing its customary solid defense and running the bases properly. Fortunately for Crescenta Valley, it will have one more opportunity to correct those mistakes.

Burbank pitcher Justin Lewis limited Crescenta Valley to five hits in Burbank’s 5-3 victory against Crescenta Valley on Monday night in the championship game of the District 16 Little League Major Baseball Tournament at Babe Herman Field.

Crescenta Valley and Burbank will meet in an if-necessary championship game at 7:30 p.m. today at Babe Herman Field with the winner moving on to the Section 2 Tournament this weekend.

Crescenta Valley had two runners in scoring position thrown out while attempting a comeback bid in the late innings. It also committed an uncharacteristic five errors.

“We were a little over aggressive on the bases and we made an unlikely five errors on the right side of the infield,” Crescenta Valley Coach Todd Erickson said. “We have to try to figure out [why that happened] and then come out with some good at-bats and pitchers [today].”

Burbank owned a 5-1 lead going into the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Lewis hit Anders Simmeth with a pitch and Kyle Tavizon singled to put runners on first and second before Will Lombardo hit a ground-rule double to right to score Simmeth to make it 5-2.

Lewis then uncorked a wild pitch to easily score Tavizon to make it 5-3. However, Lombardo tried to score as well, but was tagged out by catcher Tanner Whitlock. Kevin Hello then singled, but Zachary Burch hit into a force out to shortstop to close out the game.

“I think Lombardo had a sense that he could score,” said Erickson, whose team never led. “Our guys did a good job of trying to come back in the end.

“We are going to need a faster start. Hats off to Burbank. We couldn’t catch them.”

Burbank scored a pair of first-inning runs off Burch, who started the game for Crescenta Valley. Aidan Anding singled to lead off the game and moved to second on a fielder’s choice before coming around to score on a single by Lewis to make it 1-0. Connor Lockheimer drove in a run on a grounder to extend Burbank’s lead to 2-0.

Crescenta Valley, which topped Burbank, 5-4, in a winner’s bracket game Wednesday, sliced the lead in half on an opposite-filed home run to right by Christian Castaneda in the second.

Burbank responded with two run in the third to make it 4-1 before adding an insurance run in the fifth.

Erickson, who saw Jacob Martinez get caught in a rundown between third base and home in the fifth, said Crescenta Valley will need to fix a couple of things leading up to tonight’s game.

“We want to be able to stay aggressive,” said Erickson, whose team advanced to Monday’s game with a 12-0 win against Foothill on Friday at Montrose Park. “We also want to make sure that we come out smoking with the bats.”

 CHARLES RICH covers sports. He can be reached at (818) 637-3228 or charles.rich@latimes.com.