Baserunning

Charles Rich NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- Accuracy counted twice for the St. Francis Connie Mack baseball team. It took two precise relays from St. Francis' defense on the game's final play in the top of the seventh inning to preserve a 5-4 victory against Loyola in a Connie Mack League game at Stengel Field on Monday. With two outs and Loyola's Fred Roche on first, Dan Gomez hit a double past center fielder Manny Aguilar. Aguilar, who began the game playing third base, threw the ball to Nance, who then relayed the ball to catcher Matt McColgan to tag out Roche.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE - A lingering winter chill and a soggy diamond weren't about to deter nearly 45 participants from learning some of the essential fundamentals of baseball. From Glendale to La Crescenta and across neighboring towns, children 7-14 flocked to Stengel Field on Thursday to take part in the 17th annual Falcon Winter Baseball Camp, which is spearheaded by Crescenta Valley High baseball Coach Phil Torres. Many of the basics were covered, including hitting, fielding, running and agility during the two-day camp, which will conclude Friday.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE - From one end zone of Glendale Community College's Sartoris Field to the other, more than 30 participants were hard at work Tuesday morning. Not catching footballs, but instead catching fly balls, scooping up grounders and running bases during the inaugural Vaquero Baseball Youth Clinic. With nearby Stengel Field unavailable, the campers, hailing mostly from Glendale, La Crescenta, Burbank and Toluca Lake, soaked up pointers given to them by Glendale college baseball Coach Chris Cicuto and his assistants during the week-long event.

SOUTHEAST GLENDALE — When Crescenta Valley High pitcher Heather Bacon took to the circle on Thursday afternoon, it’s a relatively secure assumption that the All-Area hurler didn’t have all that much pressure upon her shoulders. As reliable as Falcons offensive dominance has become this Pacific League season and the last, Crescenta Valley’s 11-run first-inning explosion was still surprisingly spectacular. The offensive barrage keyed a 17-0 five-inning league win for the Falcons against host Glendale, in which Bacon combined with Erin Ashby for a no-hitter and Crescenta Valley rolled to its seventh straight win. “We came out and placed the ball where we needed to place the ball,” said Falcons senior shortstop Baillie Kirker, who went three for three with a walk, three runs scored and three runs batted in. “Our whole lineup battled through.

The Crescenta Valley softball team welcomed a 12-day break in its schedule with a 17-run smothering of Pacific League rival Glendale High, as the Lady Falcons stormed past the Nitros, 17-0, in a five-inning no-hitter on Thursday. It was the Falcons’ seventh consecutive victory. “It was a clinic on baserunning,” said Crescenta Valley Head Coach Dan Berry. “We showed what we’re able to do on the bases in terms of taking the extra bases, being aggressive.

SAN MARINO — Perhaps Foothill 9-10 All-Star Softball Coach Todd Fabian summed it up best after his team’s title hopes hit a pothole Monday night. “The beautiful thing about being in a winner’s-bracket game is that you sometimes have a blowup game like that,” Fabian said after Foothill was handed a 10-3 loss by Quartz Hill in the championship game of the Section 2 Tournament at Huntington Middle School. “We want them to forget about this as soon as possible, and we have to be ready to play.

Hamlet Nalbandyan TUJUNGA FIELD -- The Crescenta Valley 11- and-12-year-old major baseball team ran out of comebacks Monday. After pulling one out in its final at bat the game before, CV had no such luck against District 17's Arcadia, falling, 4-2, in a second-chance bracket game of the Little League Section 2 All-Star Tournament at Tujunga Field. With the loss, CV is eliminated from All-Star tournament play. Gregg Alsdorf's squad tried to repeat Sunday's performance in which it scored two in the bottom of the sixth to beat Encino, 3-2, and almost succeeded Monday.

Charles Rich NORTHWEST GLENDALE -- He barely kept his eyes open when he squatted behind the plate. Hoover High baseball catcher Tito Cruz didn't fall asleep. The senior had a degree of difficulty seeing the ball while numerous dust particles whipped up near home plate courtesy of the forceful Santa Ana winds. Cruz shook off the winds and threw out three runners to help Hoover earn an 8-0 nonleague victory against visiting L.A. Marshall on Wednesday.

Erik Boal The fatigue of playing five consecutive days and logging over 600 round-trip miles on the Foothill (210), Golden State (5) and Antelope Valley (14) freeways finally caught up with the Crescenta Valley 9- and 10-year-old Softball All-Star team. After losing its opening-round game Saturday in the Little League Section 2 Tournament at Monte Vista Little League Field in Lancaster, the District 16 champion rallied to win three straight to earn a spot in Wednesday night's championship game against Palmdale.

Erik Boal The La Crescenta 14-year-old Babe Ruth All-Star team was never in serious jeopardy of relinquishing its lead Monday night. But thanks to some costly baserunning miscues, the District 4 representative was never in a position to put an overmatched Simi Valley team away in its second-chance bracket game in the Southern California State Tournament. La Crescenta left five runners on base -- four in scoring position -- and had four runners cut down trying to steal or advance an extra base, including two at home plate, but thanks to three hits and three runs by John La and a strong pitching effort from Chris Ziegler, Tim Shormann and Brian King, it still had more than enough to hold off Simi Valley, 6-3, at Dunsmore Park.