LA VERNE 11-YEAR OLD ALL-STARS: Woody Gives It His All in 12-Strike-Out Win Over Upland

Woody's World: AJ Woodall helped La Verne to a 4-0 shutout by striking out a dozen Upland National batters.

Riding the big left arm of A.J. Woodall and his dozen strike-outs, the La Verne 11-year-old All-Stars defeated the Upland Nationals 4-0 to force a final, winner-take-all game tonight that will send the champion to the Sub Division III playoffs in Ontario, Calif.

Woodall was a monster on the mound for La Verne. He struck out the sides in the first two innings, working around a pair of singles. Meanwhile, his counterpart for Upland, Adam Ponce, was just as effective, deftly spotting his breaking ball and painting the corners to frustrate La Verne’s normal big-strike attack. He set down La Verne in order in the first and La Verne stranded two runners in the second.

In the top of the third, Woodall set down Upland in order, collecting two more Ks and getting a nice catch from Andrew Berdugo who came charging in from third to snag off a bunt attempt off his shoe tops.

With the scored still deadlocked, 0-0, Jake San Miguel stroked a double to get things started for La Verne in the bottom of third. After Nick Peifer popped up and Nate Schnedier flied to left, Anthony Cascarano singled to left and San Miguel came all away around to score to give La Verne a breakthrough, lid-lifting 1-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Woodall kept dealing. After surrendering a lead-off single to Upland’s Logan Flanagan, Woodall struck out the next three batters, striking out the side for the third time in four innings.

In the bottom half, La Verne pushed across another critical run to go up, 2-0. With two outs and Nick Johnson on second and Kenji Henderson at first, lead-off hitter Peifer poked a scoring single into right. But after Schneider walked to load the basis, Cascarano fouled out to end the threat. Many of the La Verne faith had to be wondering if their team had missed a great scoring opportunity, leaving the door ajar for Upland to come back and win it late

If the La Verne crowd had its doubts, Woodall didn’t as he sliced through the Upland line-up yet again, getting a pair of ground-outs to go along with his 12th strikeout.

Although Woodall was done for the night on the mound, exhausting his 88-pitch count, nobody told him he couldn’t still take a few cuts with his sweet-swinging bat. Leading off in the bottom of the fifth, Woodall slugged a home run to push the score to 3-0.

La Verne still wasn’t done. After Woodall’s solo shot, Graydon Smith singled, his second of the game. Will Guerra tapped into a force play, but eventually came around to score on a pair of wild pitches and a passed ball to help La Verne take a 4-0 lead into the final inning.

Tag Team Partners. Logan Zylstra, left, and Jake San Miguel combined defensive efforts to get the final out of the game.

Needing three outs, Peifer went to work, facing the top of Upland’s talented line-up. Lead-off hitter Drew Cowley, who had been blanked his previous two trips to the platet, promptly hit a single to get Upland started . Catcher Jared Lindsay then bounced to third baseman Logan Zylstra who fielded the ball cleanly, but then lost his balance as he threw to second. The ball sailed high but the La Verne second baseman toed the bag to complete the force. After striking out the next batter, Jacob Beltran stepped to the plate and dunked a Texas leaguer into left field. San Miguel scooped up the ball and fired to third, where Zylstra snapped down the tag on the sliding runner. The umpire ruled that the runner was out, not because the ball beat him to the bag, but because the runner attempted a head-first slide, a violation of Little League rules unless the runner is diving back to the bag. Game over.

“Tonight, our bats were not alive, but pitching saved our butts, La Verne manager Kevin Smith told the team moments after the game.

The defense wasn’t too bad, either coach. Just ask Berdugo, Schneider behind the plate and La Verne’s new tag team of San Miguel and Zylstra.

Tonight both teams play for the whole ball of wax, all the marbles and the big enchilada. Game time at Pelota Park is 6:30 p.m. with the winner advancing to Ontario.

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