FRANKLIN LOAN CENTER GAME OF THE WEEK: La Verne Palm Trees Now Listed on Endangered Species List
Bombs Away: Please return all home runs to the tower in exchange for a blo-pop. Fat chance of wrestling these home balls away from Anthony Cascarano, Nick Peifer, AJ Woodall and Graydon Smith.
Balls were jumping off the bats of La Verne hitters with such velocity and ferocity last night that Little League officials may have to call an arborist to inspect the damage to all the palm trees just beyond the outfield fences. In all, the 11-year-old La Verne All Stars smashed six home runs en route to their 15-5 win over South Pasadena in the sectional elimination game.
It was a slugfest from the start, with La Verne pounding out 16 hits to South Pasadena’s dozen. The difference was six of La Verne’s 16 hits left the yard, including a pair each by Nick Peifer and Anthony Cascarano. In fact, after South Pasadena scored two in the top of the first, La Verne’s lead-off hitter, Peifer helped his team get one of those back when he blasted the first pitch he saw from Michael Magana over the fence. Later in the inning, La Verne took the lead, 3-2, on an RBI ground-out by A.J. Woodall and a sacrifice fly by Graydon Smith.
Nick Johnson acrobatically handled the pitching load for La Verne.
In the top of the second, South Pasadena, came right back, taking a 4-3 lead on a two-run double by clean-up hitter Casey Slattery.
In the bottom half of the frame after singles by Kenji Henderson and Peifer, it appeared South Pasadena might escape the inning with the lead intact, but Anthony Cascarano jacked a two-out, three-run bomb to put La Verne up, 6-4. Then Woodall legged out a triple and Smith singled him home to give La Verne a 7-4 lead.
In the top of third, South Pasadena threatened again, but Peifer came charging hard from his shortstop position to nip Noah Miayme at first for the final out of the inning. Starting pitcher Nick Johnson also rang up a key strike-out to keep South Pasadena from scoring.
La Verne made the most of its opportunities in the bottom of the third. After two outs, with just Henderson aboard on an error, La Verne went on a rampage. Peifer blasted his second home run of the game, Nate Schneider singled, Cascarano crushed a two-run homer for his second home of the game, Woodall doubled, Smith doubled, Will Guerra got aboard on a dropped fly in right, Johnson singled and Jake San Miguel singled. When the diamond dust cleared, La Verne had scored six runs to go up 13-4.
Again, to its credit, South Pasadena had a pair of doubles and a single in the top of the fourth for one run. When La Verne was blanked in the bottom half, La Verne led 13-5.
Kenji Henderson raps a single to right for La Verne, starting off the big six-run inning.
In the top of the fifth, South Pasadena wasted a pair of one-out singles. There would no such power outage for La Verne. Leading off in the bottom of the fifth, Woodall sent a ball soaring into the twilight and then Smith followed with a home run. The back-to-back bombs put La Verne up 15-5, and the game was in the books.
“We were confident we’d come back tonight after dropping our last game against Upland,” La Verne Manager Kevin Smith said after the contest. “That was a good South Pasadena team over there, but Nick Johnson gave us everything we asked for. He gave us 80-plus pitches before we called on Peifer to close it out for us.
With the win, La Verne gets its rematch tonight against Upland at Pelota Park in La Verne. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
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