Little League All-Stars Fall to Ladera

Down to their last strike with two outs in the sixth inning, the North Venice Little League 9-10 all-stars found were given new life when Anthony Langdon came through with a base hit, scoring Alfred Jones and Jonathan Dominguez to tie Saturday's District 25 Tournament elimination game 7-7 against host Ladera.

The game went into extra innings and North Venice took a one-run lead in the seventh, only to see Ladera plate two runs on an error to prevail 9-8 in the bottom of the inning, knocking North Venice out of the loser's bracket. 

"We only have four 10-year-olds on our team, the rest are all nine," North Venice Manager Oscar Casillas said. "I'm sure we're playing with the youngest team out here and this bodes well for next year because most of these kids will be back."

Ethan Anderson started the game on the mound and pitched into the third inning as North Venice built a 3-1 lead, helped by his two-RBI single in the second. Ladera scored five times in the bottom of the third when Langdon relieved Anderson.

Langdon and Anderson are each only 9, as are catcher Kai Casillas and Tristan Gallegos, who pitched well the last two innings. Casillas caught every inning of every game in the tournament and he allowed only one stolen base. 

"We showed a lot of character coming back, but we made a couple of critical errors... ultimately it was our inexperience and youth that cost us," said Casillas, who coached the Angels to second place in the Minor Division of the North Venice League. "They're good, but we gave them all they could handle."

Also contributing for North Venice were shortstop Anthony Angel, center fielder Dutch Lennon, first baseman Tristan Gallegos, left fielder Estevan Lopez Rojas, Julian Scissors, Keegan Badour and Jack Weiner. 

In the Junior Division (ages 13-14), North Venice has advanced through the winner's bracket and will play for the championship at 5 p.m. Wednesday against whoever the team that emerges from the loser's bracket.