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

Sports

North Venice All-Stars Win District Tournament

The Little League junior team routs West L.A. in the final and advances to Sectionals.

One challenge of coaching all-stars is getting them to play as a team. 

That wasn't a big problem for the North Venice Little League's Junior Division squad this season since a lot of them have been playing with one another since they were six or seven years old.  

The cohesion those players developed, along with their baseball talent, is what enabled them to dominate this year's Little League District 25 All-Star Tournament for 13- and 14-year-olds.

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

North Venice needed only six innings to beat West Los Angeles 13-3 on Wednesday at Bill Botts Field in Culver City to clinch the District championship for the second straight season, although only a few players from their roster were on the team a year ago. 

"This group has a lot of talent and eight or nine of them are high-level travel ball players," first-year Manager but longtime youth, Olympic and pro coach Allan Henckel said. "They're all used to being the top of the heap of any team they're on and each kid has so much confidence in his ability. Sometimes as a team that can make you less cohesive because everyone's trying to do it on his own." 

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

There was plenty of teamwork going on Wednesday, as North Venice batted around in the first inning to score four runs and tacked on a couple more each inning after to build a 10-run lead through four. 

West LA got two runs in the top of the fifth to keep the game going but North Venice answered with two of its own, and when West LA failed to score in its half of the sixth, the game ended on the mercy rule.

"It was mostly singles and a couple of doubles," Hanckel said. "We like to be aggressive running the bases and we're fast so we tend to score a lot that way."

Catcher Matt Kassowitz, who had homered against West LA in North Venice's 15-5 victory in the finals of the winner's bracket Saturday, doubled on Wednesday and starter Jesse Hanckel threw 49 pitches in two and two-thirds innings, allowing one run before being lifted for Peter Rolon, who pitched "very well" in finishing the game.

"Jesse could've gone further but I pulled him so he'll be able to pitch in the Sectional Tournament," Allan Hanckel said of his son, also a standout in football, playing quarterback and linebacker, who will be going to Village Christian High School in Sunland. "North Venice has traditionally been pretty competitive and has won Sectionals a few times."

North Venice now advances to the Section 4 Tournament, a four-team, double-elimination playoff. North Venice plays perennial power San Pedro, the District 27 champion, in the first round back at Culver City's Bill Botts Field at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Should North Venice win it will play the winner of the early game between District 37 champion Holly Park and District 36 champion Manhattan Beach at 3 p.m. Sunday. If North Venice loses it will play the loser of the Holly Park-Manhattan Beach game at 5 p.m. Monday.

Section winners advance to the state tournament, which is followed by a regional tournament and then finally the national tournament.

North Venice's all-stars were never tested in District play, outscoring the opposition 49-9 in its four games.

The Junior 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.

The Juniors became the third North Venice Little League squad to win the District 25 All-Star Tournament, joining the 9- & 10-year-old and 11- & 12-year-old softball teams. 

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?