Sports
West L.A. All-Stars Fall Short of District Title
The Little League 11-12 squad manages only two hits in its 11-2 loss to Ladera.
A great tournament did not end the way the West Los Angeles Little League 11- & 12-year-old all-stars envisioned it would.
The team needed to beat Ladera once in two games in the final round to win the District 25 Tournament, but after winning 14-9 Saturday to stay alive, Ladera won Monday's decider 11-2 at Bill Botts Field in Culver City to advance to the Sectionals in Westchester.
"At the beginning of the tournament we were just hitting everything and I'm not sure if we were tired or what but what happened today wasn't what I was expecting," West LA manager Dave Georgeff said. "I want to thank the parents for their support and bringing their kids to practice every day."
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West LA had defeated Ladera 12-8 in the finals of the winner's bracket, but its bats were silenced Monday as it managed only two hits--a single by Matt Thomas and a double by Andrew Moritz. Austin Mills and Moritz each had an RBI while Mills and Georgeff scored the runs.
"We left a lot of baserunners on, we didn't have timely hitting and once I made the pitching change that's what happened," Georgeff said. "We left the bases loaded maybe twice and runners at first and third a couple of times."
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The game was tied 2-2 through four innings, as West LA's starting pitcher Andrew Moritz had seven strikeouts and three walks. Then, Ladera exploded for four runs in the fourth and five more in the fifth to break the game open.
"The kids worked very hard and I'm proud of all of them," Georgeff said. "Our timely hitting wasn't as timely as it was at the beginning of the tournament. I had to do some special things today, like Leon Bucksbaum hadn't caught at all in the tournament and had to come through catching four innings and he did really well."
A pivotal point in the game was with two outs and runners on second and third in the top of the fifth inning and Ladera batting with the score knotted 2-2.
"Before I could call timeout, a pitch was pitched and a double scored two runs," Georgeff said. "So now that runner is at first and I had to take my starter out. I wanted to call a timeout and tell him to walk that batter and that would be his pitch count. He was at 85 then, I just got too late."
