Announcement
Tournament of Champions: MBLL Juniors Red Grab District Title.
The Bad News Bears of the Manhattan Beach Juniors program, the MB - Red, surprised everyone by capturing the Juniors Tournament of Champions (TOC) Title on Tuesday June 17th. The Championship Game ended by the mercy rule, after six innings, with MB -Red in front of the CRLL - Braves by a score of 13-3.
The six team District 36 Tournament of Champions was organized with two pools of three team. Each pool contained one team each from MBLL, HBLL and CRLL. Each pool played a round robin format with the team with the best record advancing to the Championship game.
In Pool A, the Tournament started on Thursday, June 12th, with the HBLL Sea Dogs defeating the CRLL Cardinals by a score of 7-2. Turner Conrad pitched 6 2/3rds innings for the HBLL Sea Dogs victory. Turner used an effective curve ball to keep the CRLL - Cardinals off balance. He was supported with RBIs from Evan Westerberg, Charlie Manclark, Christian Kappel and Richard Sparks. On Saturday morning, the MB - Red team took the field versus the HB - Sea Dogs. Behind the combined no hit pitching of Andy Burschinger, Masato Goda, Kevin Lopez and Jeff Clark, the MB- Red defeated the Sea Dogs by a score of 8-2. Luke Hale sparked the Reds with two hits and a run. Jeff Clark and Andy Burschinger scored two runs each and Christian (C Mac) Macdonald drove home two runs. The big hit, though, was a two out, two run, double from first baseman Joey Markus that put the Reds out front 6-2. On Sunday, the MB - Red went back to work versus the CRLL - Cardinals and their star pitcher Keanu Uini. Leading 1-0 in the top of the 3rd, the MB - Red team broke the game open with consecutive singles by Jeff Clark, Brett Clark, Conor Fererra, C Mac, Mosato Goda and Joey Markus sandwiched around a walk to Andy Burshinger. This put MB - Red out front by a score of 6-0. In the 4th inning, the Reds used hits from Alex Williams, Jeff Clark, Brett Clark and Conor Ferrera to push the score to 10-0. The Cardinals fought back with three runs in the bottom of the 4th, but the Reds put up another three runs in the top of the 5th on a big two out, two run double, by Brett Clark. Peirce Thue went all five innings, giving up six hits, and no walks, while striking out three to close out the 13-3 mercy victory. The MB - Red won Pool A with a 2-0 record.
In Pool B, the Tournament started on Friday June 13th with the MB - Blue team defeating the HBLL - Grizzlies by a score of 17-2. MB - Blue coach, Ira Smith, described the game as the best game the Blue had ever played. The game was tight into the 3rd inning when the Blue put six runs on the board on four walks and two hits. The big hit was a two-run double from Ryan Erickson. The Blues put four more runs on the board in the 4th inning on the back of RBI singles from Braden Casady and Jake Radonovich. In the 5th inning, the Blues added another five runs with hits from Christian Herrera, Carter Casady and Jackson Casady sandwiched around two walks. Ryan Erickson went the first three innings for the win and Dominick Costa finished out the game for the save. In the Saturday afternoon game, the CRLL Braves defeated the HB - Grizzlies by a score of 7-4. Trailing 4-2 going into the bottom of the 6th, the Braves put five runs on the board on four walks, an error, and a big double from Eric Brown. The Grizzlies battled hard behind the strong arm of Jack Prassas. The big game between the MB - Blue and CRLL - Braves was set for Sunday afternoon. The Braves jumped out front with a hustle run from Eric Brown in the first inning, only to see the Blues put two runs on the board in the bottom of the first. A two-out single from Ryan Erickson, stolen base, and RBI single from Justin Pratt scored a run. Another run scored on a single by Christian Herrera. The Braves added a run in the top of the 2nd on a walk to Johnny Albi and a two out, two strike, booming triple by Adam O'Rourke. The Braves added single runs from Nolan Wilson and Taylor Bongiovanni in the 3rd and 4th innings. The Blues countered with four runs in the bottom of the 4th on singles by Brendan Vinnicombe, Christian Herrera and Carter Casady combined with walks to Ryan Erickson and an error. This put the MB - Blue out front 5-4. The Braves tied the score in the top of the 5th on a two out single by Eric Brown and an RBI double from Kermy Goulenko. In the top of the 6th, the CRLL - Braves blew the game open with six runs on five walks and two hits. The Blues added a run in the bottom of the 6th, but that was all and the game ended with the Braves on top by a score of 12 to 7. The Braves were the winner of Pool B with a 2-0 record.
The Championship game was set for Tuesday night (6/17) between the CRLL - Braves and the MB - Red. The Braves were the class of the District 36 field finishing the season undefeated. The Reds, with the majority of their players coming off the MB regular season River Dogs, spent the season inventing new approaches to losing. The Reds continued that tradition in the top of the first as four walks, and a hit batter, only resulted in one run because of a missed hit-n-run sign. With two out, it looked like the Reds would waste the opportunity, but C Mac slapped a single into left field scoring two runs and putting the Reds up 3-0. The Braves fought back with single runs in the 2nd (Taylor Bongiovanni) and 3rd (Eric Brown). In the top of the 4th, Brett Clark stole a run for the Reds with a single, stolen base, wild pitch and error. Later in the inning, a single by Peirce Thue drove home C Mac and put the Reds up 5-2. Taylor Bongiovanni added yet another run in the bottom of the 4th making the score 5-3. The Reds used three walks, three singles (Alex Williams, Lucas Hale and Brett Clark) and some productive outs to score six runs in the top of the 5th inning pushing their lead to 11-3. After the Braves went down in the bottom of the 5th, a walk by Joey Markus and some aggressive base running created a run in the top of the 6th. Then Nick Kringen's two run single pushed the Reds out front 13-3. In the bottom of the 6th, when the final batter for the Braves lined out to Jeff Clark at third base, the Reds had their 13-3 mercy victory. There were many hitting stars for the Reds (Peirce Thue 3-3), but Masoto Goada was the pitching star going 4 and 2/3rds innings for the victory. In the field, center fielder Brett Clark was the star turning four of the big hits from the Braves into outs and doubling a runner off second base.
The MB - Red team was transformed over the three week "select" program by the tough love coaching of Tony Caswick. Many of the MB - Red boys will move into High School next year and they are better prepared for that experience.
