La Verne 11-Year-Old All-Stars Suffer Off Night

La Verne's Sam Monsen slugged a no-doubt 2-run home run.

Even the 1927 New York Yankees with their murderer’s row of Ruth (.356, 60 HR, 164 RBI), Gehrig (.373, 47 HR, 175 RBI), Meusel (.337, 8 HR, 103 RBI ) and Tony Lazzeri (.309, 18 HR,  102 RBI) suffered occasional power outages, losing 44 games. And so it was that the talented La Verne 11-year-old All-Star team dropped a 14-3 decision to San Dimas on a Thursday evening at Merchant Park to even its tournament record at 1-1.

The La Verne All Stars collected only four hits on the night, a pair of singles by lead-off hitter Nick Lodolo, a single by Brogan White and a two-run homer by Sam Monsen.

By contrast, the San Dimas squad banged out 14 hits, scoring in every inning.

“I told our kids to fire up and get more energy,” Manager Brian Shively told his players after the game. “We’re a great team, but the kids let themselves down. They put in a lot of hard work all year long and during the regular season and played good baseball.

“Cole pitched a great game; our defense let him down today. We can’t have a guy pitch really good and then have our defense let down, including six in the third to break the game wide open.

La Verne made a half dozen fielding errors, which led to several scoring opportunities for San Dimas.

As a result, Coach Shively, hoping to shore up the defense, called a pre 4th of July practice at 8:30 a.m. on Friday.

“We deserve to be here,” Shively said. “Our goal is to get back to the championship to play San Dimas again.”

At the same time, he realizes his team faces a tall task. “The fact of the matter is San Dimas is the defending champion from last year of this group. Our guys may have overlooked them a bit, but we have to play hard every game. I don’t care if we’re playing a nobody or the defending champion. We have to come here and put teams away.”

For San Dimas, pitcher Matt Corona gave a gritty performance. Outside Monsen’s two run shot in the second inning and surrendering a pair of singles in the third, he was in total command. He gave to Austin Eisenhart who closed out the game for San Dimas.

Monty Montenegro led the San Dimas hitting parade with three hits, followed by Noah Williams, Erick Ware, and Eisenhart with two hits each.

After the 4th of July holiday, La Verne returns to the diamond on July 6.