FRANKLIN LOAN CENTER GAME OF THE WEEK: La Verne 11-Year-Olds Flirt with Perfect Game, White-Wash Claremont 11-0

The La Verne battery, from left, A.J. Woodall, Nick Peifer and Anthony Cascarano, was responsible for shutting out Claremont, 11-0.

On a perfect night for baseball, the La Verne 11-year-old all stars were almost perfect, as Anthony Cascarano and A.J. Woodall combined to throw a no-hitter and the La Verne bats thundered again to shut out Claremont, 11-0.

Outside of a couple of walks and two errors, Cascarano and Woodall mowed down the Claremont batters in rapid succession, firing their fastballs while mixing in some deadly off-speed pitches to keep Claremont off balance in the abbreviated four-inning contest.

La Verne got on the board playing little ball in the bottom of the first. With one out, Will Guerra beat out a bunt and eventually came around to score on a two-out single by Woodall.

In the top of the second, Claremont threatened, using a walk and an error to put runners on first and second with two outs, but Cascarano induced Claremont’s Matt Stanford to ground out to shortstop Nick Johnson to end the inning.

Meanwhile, in the bottom half of the inning, La Verne stranded two runners to waste a single by Nate Schneider and a free pass issued to Luke Grapentin.

Whichever name the La Verne coaches call, the team gets the job done.

The bottom of the third was a far, far different story for La Verne as the team sent 15 batters to the plate, pounding out eight hits and eight runs. Instead of resorting to the long all – just one of the team’s strengths – La Verne kept chipping away the old-fashioned way. Nick Peifer singled, Jake San Miguel singled, Cascarano singled, Woodall doubled, Schneider singled and Graydon Smith had a bunt single, giving La Verne six consecutive hits before making an out. After a breather, the barrage continued with Chris Spencer singling and then San Miguel and Cascarano each collecting their second hits of the inning.

In the fourth, La Verne put the game out of reach on a one-run single by Logan Zylstra and an RBI double by Peifer.

“Our pitchers made it easy for our team today,” said Manager Kevin Smith, moments after he and his coaches congratulated the team. “But we still had to hit the ball.”

Did they ever! Smith said the team’s offensive dominance on the field is the result of a lot of hard work put in over the last two weeks.

“Almost every day we spend a couple of hours hitting, moving from station to station, and you’re seeing the results.

“We’ve come a long way.”

But the journey is far from over. La Verne returns to action at Marchant Park in San Dimas at 5:30 p.m. in an attempt to nail down the district champion before moving on to the sectional playoffs.

The coaches tell their players to enjoy their win, but to come ready to work even harder in practice if they want to achieve all of their post-season goals.