Babe Ruth

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — In all facets of the game, it was a near perfect start to the Southern California All-Star Tournament. The pitching was almost unhittable, the defense was flawless and the offense was balanced. It all added up to an easy night for the La Crescenta Babe Ruth 15-year-old team. Richie Alfonso pitched a complete game two-hitter and Jonny Psaltis had a game-changing three-run double in the third inning to lead La Crescenta to a 7-0 first-round victory against Simi Valley on Saturday at Stengel Field.

GLENDALE — Watsonville holds plenty of recent history for the San Gabriel Valley Babe Ruth 16-18 squad. The small Central California farming community has been a checkpoint on the way to World Series appearances in the past, most recently last season, when the team, coached by Crescenta Valley High Coach Phil Torres, advanced to the Babe Ruth World Series in Moses Lake, Wash., where it reached the semifinals. And, once again, it's Watsonville that SGV will have to pass through to make another go at the championship.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Moments after the season concluded for the La Crescenta 14-year-old Babe Ruth All-Star team, Coach Manny Amit reflected briefly on the one inning that derailed his team. "Looking back on it, we had just that one bad inning," Amit said, referring to the second inning in which La Crescenta yielded eight runs en route to an 11-3 loss to Westchester on Monday night in the if-necessary championship game of the Babe Ruth State Tournament at Stengel Field. 'It's just one of those things and we just didn't have the pitching.

BASEBALL LA CRESCENTA BABE RUTH Crippen 13, Trotta 2: Will Davis led Crippen as he drove in seven runs and had a pair of doubles and a triple. Jimmy Crocket drove in a run. Trotta?s Shane Smith had two hits and Brandon Keen had a two-run double. CV Tile 5, San Fillippo 4: CV Tile was led by pitchers Bryan Wang and Jimmy Smiley. Jim Doyle, Joey Torres, Stephen Schmutzer and Brett Klein all played well defensively. ? CRESCENTA SPORTS ASSOCIATION MUSTANG DIVISION Crescenta Valley Tow 9, Silverleaf Construction 7: Conner Thomas and Carson Cox pitched a combined strong five innings and struck out 10 for Silverleaf Construction.

GLENDALE — To put it bluntly, the San Gabriel Valley 16-18 Babe Ruth All-Stars threw away a chance to advance to today’s Babe Ruth World Series, or at least a chance to keep their opponent, the Hammond (Ind.) Chiefs, from doing so in a semifinal game at Moses Lake, Wash. on Friday. With the Chiefs threatening with two outs and runners at the corners in the bottom of the eighth inning of a tie game, San Gabriel Valley catcher Matt Page tried to gun down Kevin Franchetti on his way to stealing second base.

GLENDALE — The members of the San Gabriel Valley 16-18 Babe Ruth haven’t been accustomed to losing during the past five weeks. On Wednesday night, the squad, featuring nine local athletes, dropped a 9-2 decision to host Columbia Basin, Wash., in a final American Division pool-play contest of the Babe Ruth World Series in Moses Lake, Wash. All isn’t completely lost though for San Gabriel Valley, which finished second in its pool. San Gabriel Valley, which captured the Southern California and Pacific Southwest Regional championships to advance to the World Series, will begin competing in the single-elimination portion of the tournament at 8 p.m. today against Cape Cod, Mass.

GLENDALE — The San Gabriel Valley Babe Ruth 16-18 All-Stars hadn’t played a game in 12 days from the time they clinched the Babe Ruth Pacific Southwest Regional title to Sunday’s opening game of pool play in the Babe Ruth 16-18 World Series in Moses Lake, Wash. The effect of the long layoff may have been evident for the first couple innings against Baxter (Tenn.) on Sunday, but before long, San Gabriel Valley was back to form, winning its first game, 10-2, behind a four-hit effort from starter Paul Paez and three runs batted in by Elliott Surrey, a Crescenta Valley High sophomore, who went four for four.

GLENDALE — Things are really coming together for the San Gabriel Valley 16-18 Babe Ruth All-Stars, both on the field and off. Set to open play in the Babe Ruth 16-18 World Series in Moses Lake, Wash. against Baxter (Tenn.) at 2 p.m. on Sunday, San Gabriel Valley is playing solid baseball and becoming more of a team and less of a collection of players cobbled together with little more in common than their talent. “After the [Southern California] tournament, we had only had two practices and three games together,” said All-Stars’ catcher and Crescenta Valley High senior Joe Sedano, one of nine Falcons on San Gabriel Valley’s World Series roster.

GLENDALE ? The La Crescenta 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Star team spent the entire weekend fending off elimination, thanks in large part to its bats coming alive in the final innings. Unfortunately for La Crescenta, it couldn?t do it one more time. La Crescenta saw its season end Monday night with a 12-1 loss to Alameda in an elimination game of the Pacific Southwest Regional at Babe Ruth Field in Eureka. The game was called in the middle of the fifth inning because of the 10-run mercy rule.