Quartz Hill

The Crescenta Valley boys' varsity baseball team led a 5-0 lead get away from them and wound up losing 7-6 to Quartz Hill at Stengel Field in the 39th Babe Herman Tournament on April 7. The Falcons finished tournament play with a 2-2 record. They are 8-6 overall and 4-1 in Pacific League competition. CV scored five runs in the top of the first inning to go up 5-0. Quartz Hill responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning. The Falcons added another run in the top of the fourth to go up 6-2, but that was the end of the scoring for them.

Erik Boal For a team that trailed for a combined two innings in its first five postseason contests, the Crescenta Valley Major Baseball All-Star squad found itself in a rather unfamiliar position Sunday night against Quartz Hill. The defending Little League Section 2 champion fell behind by three runs after one inning and was staring a four-run deficit in the face entering the top of the fifth in its winner's-bracket semifinal at Millham Field.

MONTROSE ? At least they will have the chance to reverse course following a lopsided loss. That?s the approach the members of the Crescenta Valley 10- and 11-year-old All-Star Softball team will take if they want to keep their season alive. Crescenta Valley suffered a 19-7 loss to Quartz Hill in the championship contest of the Section 2 Tournament on Friday night at Montrose Park. Crescenta Valley, the District 16 champion, will meet Quartz Hill, which captured the District 51 crown, in the tournament?

MONTROSE — For much of the first 3 1/2 innings of Saturday’s 10-11-year old Softball Section 2 Tournament ‘if necessary’ championship game at Montrose Park, Crescenta Valley Little League could seemingly do no wrong. But once Quartz Hill’s bats heated up and momentum began to noticeably switch sides, both the offense and defense that came so easily to Crescenta Valley in the early going suddenly became difficult. Over the final three innings Crescenta Valley saw all of an eight-run lead dissipate before Quartz Hill finally scored the winning run on a pair of errors to take the championship with a 9-8 victory.

LA CRESCENTA — Brentwood High once again had Crescenta Valley’s number on Saturday, defeating the Falcons boys’ volleyball team, 25-18, 25-20, in the Gold playoff bracket fifth-place match of the Crescenta Valley Varsity Tournament. The Falcons got five kills from Nico Alegria and two kills and an ace from Anthony Shapiro, but couldn’t fend off the second sweep in as many days at the hands of the Eagles, who defeated Crescenta Valley, 27-25, 25-19 in Friday’s pool-play round.

BURBANK — With a nine-day break in between games, the members of the Crescenta Valley High girls’ basketball team were afforded the rare opportunity to fix some parts of their game. It gave the Falcons time to practice boxing out and grasping the basic fundamentals that will be needed in order to prepare for league and possibly the playoffs. The practice sessions appear to have done a world of good. Refreshed Crescenta Valley had three players score in double-digits Monday afternoon en route to a 59-38 victory against Quartz Hill in an opening round game of the Burroughs Magnolia Park Optimist Tournament at Burroughs High.

GLENDALE — In the budding rivalry between the 10-11 Foothill All-Stars and their Quartz Hill counterparts, every game has been close, but every contest has ended with Foothill on the wrong end of it. It was true once more on Monday evening, as District 16 champion Foothill fell, 1-0, to Quartz Hill in the Section 2 Tournament title game at El Dorado Park in Lancaster. "It was a great softball game, we just came out on the wrong end of it," said Foothill Manager Tyson Howard.

SAN MARINO — Standing in the third-base coaching box, Crescenta Valley 9-10 All-Star softball Coach Dan Abboud could see his players brimming with confidence after each base hit. Abboud figured it was a good sign. "For us, it's about one base at a time because you never know what can spark them," Abboud said Monday night after Crescenta Valley posted a 12-7 win against Quartz Hill in the Section 2 championship contest at San Marino Little League Field. "Once you see them starting to hit, you can see how they feed off each other.

GLENDALE — While it didn't seem all that important at first, the last run scored by the Crescenta Valley Major baseball team on Monday night proved to loom large. In being able to narrowly hold on to an eight-run deficit, Crescenta Valley kept its season alive along with its bid to win a championship. Crescenta Valley got early home runs from Jake Whisenant and Robert Giese, then held on for a 14-13 victory against Quartz Hill in an elimination game of the Section 2 Tournament at Encino Little League Fields.

GLENDALE — While the rest of the District 16 Little League All-Star teams competed in tournaments, the Crescenta Valley 10-11 Softball team practiced on local diamonds. Ideally, Crescenta Valley would have preferred participating in some All-Star games. However, there wasn't enough players in the age division to field another team in the district, forcing Crescenta Valley Coach Wade Oshiro and his team to go in a different direction the past two weeks. Oshiro and Crescenta Valley hope that the preparation gained from the practices will bring success when Crescenta Valley begins the Section 2 Tournament with an opening-round game against District 51 representative Quartz Hill at 9:30 a.m. today at Canyon Country Little League Field.

GLENDALE — Crescenta Valley 10-11 All-Star baseball Coach David Mulcahey couldn't have been more pleased with what he saw in the first inning. It was the kind of start Mulcahey had hoped for, ultimately helping his team relax and focus on reaching the championship contest of the Section 2 Tournament. "We came in focused and we scored six runs in the first inning," Mulcahey said after Crescenta Valley posted a 17-6 win against Quartz Hill in an elimination game called after five innings because of the 10-run mercy rule Monday night at El Dorado Little League Fields in Lancaster.

GLENDALE — While it didn't seem all that important at first, the last run scored by the Crescenta Valley Major baseball team on Monday night proved to loom large. In being able to narrowly hold on to an eight-run deficit, Crescenta Valley kept its season alive along with its bid to win a championship. Crescenta Valley got early home runs from Jake Whisenant and Robert Giese, then held on for a 14-13 victory against Quartz Hill in an elimination game of the Section 2 Tournament at Encino Little League Fields.

GLENDALE — While focusing on the District 16 Junior Softball All-Star Tournament, Will Thayer couldn't help but look ahead at sizing up the competition for the Section 2 Tournament in case Crescenta Valley advanced. Thayer, the Crescenta Valley coach, made road trips to the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys to get a better grasp on the strengths and weaknesses of future opposition from those respective districts. Now that Crescenta Valley has advanced to the Section 2 Tournament, Thayer is looking for his breakdown analysis to be helpful for his squad when it opens the four-team tournament at 8 p.m. today against District 51 champion Quartz Hill at Monte Vista Little League Field in Lancaster.

GLENDALE — It's been rare for the Crescenta Valley 10-11 All-Star baseball team to surrender runs of late. In fact, it's happened only once in its last three contests. "One of the things that's set us apart from the opposition is our ability to throw strikes and play strong defense," said Crescenta Valley Coach Dave Mulcahey, whose team recently won the District 16 championship and will begin play in the Section 2 Tournament with an opening-round contest against District 40 representative Northridge at 5 p.m. today at El Dorado Little League Fields in Lancaster.

ENCINO — The adage, "practice makes perfect" has rung true for the Crescenta Valley Major Baseball All-Star team so far this season. The squad has worked on its offense all season and it continued to pay off, as Crescenta Valley routed Quartz Hill, 14-2, in the first round of the Section 2 Tournament at Encino Little League Saturday morning. "We work very hard on hitting with two strikes, that's one of the things we focus on in practice and do a lot of drills on — putting the ball in play with two strikes — and it's been paying off for us," said Drew Arredondo, Crescenta Valley's coach, who saw his team put the 10-run mercy rule into effect after five innings.

GLENDALE — The Crescenta Valley 9-10 Softball All-Stars have had but a day to celebrate their Section 2 title. Now it's time to get back to business and get ready to try and win some more hardware. Exactly what awaits the local All-Stars at Ribbons Little League Field in Victorville, where the team opens its Southern California State Championships tournament run against the Section 5 champion at 6 p.m. today, remains mostly a mystery to Crescenta Valley Coach Dan Abboud. The vast geographic area the tournament draws sectional qualifiers from makes advance scouting all but impossible, so other than doing some last-minute scouting of teams from an earlier game and holding a morning practice to get used to the field today, Abboud will ask his team to prepare the same way it has throughout its District 16 and Section 2 runs.

SAN MARINO — With both the Crescenta Valley and Quartz Hill 9-10 All-Star Softball teams having used up their aces the previous day, Tuesday's Section 2 if-necessary championship game promised to be a true test of pitching depth. While the game was back and forth in the early stages, it was Crescenta Valley that eventually wore down Quartz Hill's arms with big scoring outbursts in the third and fifth innings to secure an 18-8 win in a game shortened to five innings because of the mercy rule.

SAN MARINO — Standing in the third-base coaching box, Crescenta Valley 9-10 All-Star softball Coach Dan Abboud could see his players brimming with confidence after each base hit. Abboud figured it was a good sign. "For us, it's about one base at a time because you never know what can spark them," Abboud said Monday night after Crescenta Valley posted a 12-7 win against Quartz Hill in the Section 2 championship contest at San Marino Little League Field. "Once you see them starting to hit, you can see how they feed off each other.

SAN MARINO —The Crescenta Valley 9-10 All-Star Softball team looked like it was going get blown out in the second round of the Section 2 Tournament against Quartz Hill on Saturday. Quartz Hill carried a five-run lead into the bottom of the sixth inning, but Crescenta Valley put together some last-second offense and scored three runs in the final frame. It wasn't enough, though, as Quartz Hill shut the door for what ended up being a narrow, 7-5, victory at the San Marino Little League Fields.

GLENDALE — For Crescenta Valley 9-10 Softball All-Star Coach Dan Abboud, the proof his team is ready to compete in the Section 2 Tournament wasn't in the squad's lopsided wins to open the District 16 All-Star Tournament, but rather in the come-from-behind 6-4 win it notched over Burbank on Tuesday in the title game to advance to the Sectionals. "I was a little concerned at the beginning [of the District All-Star tournament] where we were coming and steamrolling all these teams and, really, I believe what makes a good team is a team that can come from behind and that's what we did," said Abboud, whose team trailed Burbank, 3-0, early but rallied to win behind runs batted in by Alli Lombardo, Roxy Raad and Alexis Abboud and 4 2/3 strong innings in the circle from Lombardo.