As far as the Atlanta Braves of the La Verne Little League Major Division are concerned, the playoffs represent a whole new season and a fresh start toward reaching their true potential.
With that attitude, they went out and delivered their best baseball diamond performance of the year, routing the higher-seeded Red Sox, 20-3.
The visiting Braves got on the board in the top of the first after a one-out double from Elijah Guerrero followed by an RBI single from Clayton Roland.
The Braves, acting as if they had former Atlanta great Hammerin’ Hank Aaron in the line-up, exploded for six runs in the third. When they weren’t smashing the ball (a triple by Dan Munoz and singles from Guerrero and Roland), they were showing their good batter’s eye by walking (free passes were issued to Micah Smith, Richard Maryanski, Phillip Williams and Cody Kountz).
If the third inning weren’t enough for the Braves, they scored nine more in the fifth. Eight batters marched to the plate before an out was recorded. Four of those batters — Smith, Maryanski, Kountz and Jhett Buggle — each doubled.
The Braves’ Dan Munoz ended the fifth-inning barrage by stroking a three-run homer to extend the lead to 16-3.
The Braves, however, still weren’t through, adding an exclamation point to their performance with four more runs in the sixth. In the inning, Roland singled, Smith tripled, Kountz clubbed a two-run homer and Johnny Rodriguez doubled.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox mustered all of their runs in the bottom of the fourth. In the inning, the first five batters reached base, including singles fro Tony Santiago, Matt Bustos and Jacob Snyder, John Diaz also was hit by a pitch to help give Boston their best offensive output of the night.
For the Braves, Munoz, Guerrero, Roland, Kountz and Buggle all enjoyed multiple-hit games.
For the Red Sox, Roland and Bustos had multi-hit games.
About the only thing that appears capable of cooling off the scorching-hot Braves is the Memorial Day weekend when Pelota Park will fall silent in honor of the holiday.
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