Crescenta Valley Major Baseball All-Star Team (5-1) lost its first game of the season suffering a 15-4 setback to Quartz Hill Tuesday night. It was only a four-inning game due to the mercy rule.
Crescenta Valley had previously outscored opponents 61-14 in route to going undefeated.
“I think we’ll be fine tomorrow,” said Crescenta Valley manager Mike Vinceri. “Those guys came ready to hit the ball and we’ll take it to them tomorrow.”
Jett Costibolo blasted a three-run homer scoring Brian Erickson and Michael Choi in the top of the first to grab a 3-0 lead, but it was all downhill from there for Crescenta Valley.
Quartz Hill scored eight in the bottom of the first and one in the second and third to take a 10-3 lead.
Jaimy Blank ripped a mammoth solo home run in the top of the fourth to close the margin to 10-4, but Quartz Hill responded with five runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Crescenta Valley gets a rematch with Quartz Hill 8 p.m. Wednesday in Lancaster for the Section 2 championship.
If Crescenta Valley wins the Sectional Tournament, they will advance to the Southern California North Sub-Divisional Tournament featuring five of the top 10 teams in Southern California.
The final step in qualifying for the Little League World Series is the Western Regionals in San Bernardino, where the Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, northern California, Southern California and Utah state champions would all vie for the one western bid.
“We haven’t lost anything yet. The whole reason we got here is we had one game in hand. We’re going to throw our guy tomorrow and take care of business,” said Vinceri.
Section 2 Tournament Schedule (All Games at El Dorado):
1 – Quartz Hill 12, San Marino 11 (7/14)
2 – Crescenta Valley 16, Encino 5 (7/14)
3 – Crescenta Valley 9 vs Quartz Hill 4 (7/15)
4 – San Marino 18 vs Encino 16 (7/15) (elim)
5 – Quartz Hill 16 vs San Marino 8 (7/16) (elim)
6 – Quartz Hill 15 vs Crescenta Valley 4 (7/17)
7 – Crescenta Valley vs Quartz Hill (7/18) (championship, game 2)
