All-Stars Mercy Saticoy in Sub Division Opener

It's not supposed to be that easy this deep into the Little League All-Star playoffs, but the North Venice Junior team won its fifth game by mercy rule Saturday, routing Section 1 champion Saticoy 17-6 in Tehachapi to open the Sub Division III North Tournament.

North Venice improved to 8-1 overall in District, Section and Sub Division play and faces Section 2 winner Encino at 10 a.m. Sunday in Tehachapi.  

The star of the game was catcher Matt Kassowitz, who went three for three with two home runs, three runs scored and seven RBIs.

Daniel Raygosa went four for four with three runs scored and one RBI, shortstop Peter Rolon went three for three with a double and three runs scored and Jesse Hanckel went two for two with one RBI as North Venice amassed 18 hits to beat its Ventura County adversary easily, despite making four errors. Anthony Arango had a hit and two RBIs and Isaac Yoshinaga had one hit, one RBI and two runs scored. 

On the mound, Yoshinaga started and went two and one-third innings, giving up four runs on three hits with three strikeouts. Arango pitched one inning, allowing two runs on two hits, Javier Garcia pitched one and one-third innings, allowing one hit with one strikeout, and Hanckel got the final out. 

After North Venice bolted to a 5-1 lead after two innings, each team plated four in the third and Saticoy scored one in the fourth before North Venice exploded for eight runs in the top of the fifth, then held Saticoy scoreless in the bottom half to end the game. 

North Venice advances to play Section 2 champion Encino at 10 a.m. Sunday in the four-team double-elimination tournament. The winner will meet Section 5 champion Golden Hill at 6 p.m. Monday and the loser will play Sunday at 2 p.m. against Saticoy or South El Monte, the Section 3 champion.

North Venice beat Manhattan Beach 12-2 in five innings to win the Section 4 championship last Wednesday in Culver City. 

Click here to view the Sub Division brackets.

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