Junior teams forced to move

GLENDALE — While handling the scoreboard responsibilities during a Tri-Cities District 16 Tournament of Champions Major Baseball game at Babe Herman Field on Wednesday night, assistant Administrator Joe Boeke received a phone call from a fellow administrator concerning an uncontrollable situation that occurred at Scholl Canyon Ball Fields.

Just before the top of the sixth inning of a Junior Baseball game between Crescenta Valley Kelly & Small and the Burbank Bulldogs began, Scholl encountered a partially flooded outfield resulting from a water main break. The umpires and teams agreed to suspend the game with Kelly & Small holding a 5-3 lead. In addition, another game in the bracket between Crescenta Valley DCG and Jewel City West Coast that was scheduled to be played following the first game at Scholl was also postponed.

With Scholl no longer an option for hosting the remaining games of the tournament, Boeke began the arduous process of scrambling to find additional fields to complete the remainder of the tournament, which was originally scheduled to finish Sunday.

After taking in suggestions from the coaches and talking with officials from the City of Glendale Parks and Recreation Dept., the district was able to resolve the issues and put a new timetable on completing the tournament.

"I got the calls and e-mails from the coaches about what we were going to do," Boeke said. "It's quite a process and we wanted to set up situations that were equitable in a way that it would be fair."

With a new plan in place, Boeke secured other diamonds around the area to finish the tournament.

The Kelly & Small-Bulldogs game will resume at 10:30 a.m. today at Tujunga Little League Fields. The DCG-West Coast contest will follow at noon at the same site.

The winners of those games will meet at 5 p.m. Monday at Tujunga Little League Fields in the semifinal round.

The winner of Monday's game will face the Jewel City Bears or Crescenta Valley Kitchen in the championship game at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Dunsmore Park. The Bears and Kitchen, who picked up victories Wednesday at Dunsmore, will participate in a semifinal game at 4 p.m. Sunday at Dunsmore.

"The top half of the bracket will have a little advantage having an extra day of rest," Boeke said. "This is the compromise that we had to make.

"The bottom half of the bracket will have one day of rest going from Saturday to Monday.

"We worked with Park and Recreation about getting certain times and days for field use. Wednesday was the next possible day for field availability in terms of playing the championship game. The All-Star tournaments begin the following Monday and the teams need rest and time to get ready for that."

Boeke said the new plans for the tournament might play a role in the way coaches handle their respective pitching staffs.

According to Boeke, if a pitcher tosses 66 or more pitches, that pitcher must rest four days in a row. A pitcher will be required to have three days of consecutive rest if he makes 51-65 pitches. A pitcher throwing between 35-50 tosses must rest for two straight days and a pitcher must rest one day after throwing 21-35 pitches.