Sports
West LA Little League Teams Make District Finals
The Minor Division Cubs and Major Division Blue Jays will play for championships Saturday.
It's been a dream season for the West LA Little League, which has advanced two teams to the finals of the District 25 Baseball Tournament of Champions.
In the Minor Division (ages 9-11), the West LA Cubs beat the Ladera Dodgers 9-4 in the semifinals Thursday evening at the Culver Marina Little League complex.
West LA will play the Culver City Dodgers for the championship Saturday at 10 a.m. at the same site.
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The Cubs jumped ahead 4-0 in the first inning and padded their lead with three runs in the third and two in the fourth--the key hit being an RBI double by catcher Max Prather. Connor Ladwig went three for three at the plate and pitched the final inning, reaching out to catch a line drive for the last out.
Having knocked off the defending champions, the Cubs will now try to make a bit of history by becoming the first West LA Minor Division team in eight years to win the Tournament of Champions.
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"We don't know much about Culver City except they won 10-1 yesterday," West LA Manager Mike Ladwig said. "We just beat one team of Dodgers now we'll try to beat another one."
In the Major Division (ages 10-12), the West LA Blue Jays capitalized on errors to bat around twice while scoring 14 runs in the second inning and eventually beating the Santa Monica East Yankees 15-5 in four innings Thursday in the semifinals.
West LA will play the Ladera Braves in the championship game Saturday at 10:30 a.m., also at the Culver Marine Little League complex. It will be a rematch of last year's final when Ladera won in its final at-bat.
Ladera beat Malibu 13-3 in Wednesday's first semifinal game.
Jake Georgeff pitched into the fourth inning, striking out eight Yankees before having to leave because he reached the 85-pitch limit.
"Ladera is a really good team," said Blue Jays Manager Dave Georgeff, who could not recall the last time a West LA team had won the Major Division Tournament of Champions. "It was a really exciting game last year and hopefully it will be again this year."
