This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

All-Stars One Win Away from Section Title

North Venice Little League Juniors play Manhattan Beach for championship.

It all comes down to one game to decide which team will represent Section 4 in the Little League Baseball Southern California Divisional All-Star Tournament. 

North Venice's Junior team (ages 13-14) had a chance to clinch the Section title Tuesday night but lost to Manhattan Beach 8-7 on an error in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The teams meet again Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Bill Botts Field in Culver City and the winner advances to the next round while the loser's season is over.

Find out what's happening in Venice-Mar Vistawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

North Venice is the District 25 champion and Manhattan Beach is the District 36 winner. North Venice beat Manhattan Beach 9-4 in the final of the winner's bracket Sunday after having beaten District 27 winner San Pedro East View 11-6 in the first round. 

Early in Tuesday's game it looked like North Venice was headed for the next phase of the playoffs as it plated three runs in the top of the first inning and led 4-1 behind starting pitcher Jesse Hanckel. Manhattan Beach responded with six runs in the fourth and took a 7-4 lead into the sixth inning.

Find out what's happening in Venice-Mar Vistawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

North Venice pulled to within a run on a two-RBI double by Gyasi Washington in the sixth and reliever Peter Rolon kept Manhattan Beach off the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning.

With one out in the top of the seventh, Rolon's hit scored Josh De La Rosa to tie the game 7-7, but North Venice missed a chance to take the lead on a strikeout and a fly out. 

Manhattan Beach punched across a run in the bottom half to hand North Venice its first loss and set up a winner-take-all scenario in the double-elimination format.

North Venice wasn't tested in the District 25 Tournament, outscoring its four opponents 49-9 and needed only six innings to beat West Los Angeles 13-3 in the final.

First-year Manager Allan Hanckel, a longtime youth, Olympic and pro coach, has his team on the verge of the Section title just as it was a year ago when North Venice lost the decisive game to Harbor City.

The North Venice Junior All-Star team consists of: pitcher Jesse Hanckel, catcher Matt Kassowitz, shortstop/pitcher Peter Rolon, first baseman Isaac Yoshinaga, second baseman Christian Kim, third baseman Javier Garcia, left fielder Tucie Shelp, center fielder Josh De La Rosa, right fielder Daniel Raygosa, pitcher/outfielders Kyle Brisacher and Bryant De Grate and infielder/outfielders Christian Santiesban and Gyasi Washington.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?