Baseball: Community Harvest wins City Div. III title
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Forrest Riley II singled to center field to score William Henriquez with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning and lift Sherman Oaks Community Harvest to a 8-7 victory over Animo Venice in the Los Angeles City Section Division III championship game at USC’s Dedeaux Field.
Starter Ricky Juarez did not allow a hit in the first five innings, staking the top-seeded Golden Eagles (18-3) to a 7-1 lead, but the third-seeded Pirates (14-5) rallied for two runs in the sixth and four in the seventh to force extra innings.
‘I’m a pull hitter and I was looking for something I could drive in the gap,’ said Riley II, a senior headed to Cal State Dominguez Hills. ‘He was pitching me high so I expected it up in the zone, I put a good swing on it and it was game over. Baseball has no time limit and we play hard until the last out.’
After Daniel Sandoval and Fabian Martinez hit RBI singles to pull Animo Venice within 7-5 in the seventh, Lorenzo Martinez singled with two outs to score Sandoval and Fabian Martinez and tie the game. In the eighth, the Pirates put runners on first and second with no outs but failed to score. In the first inning, Riley II tripled to right field to score Juarez, Darryl Wilson singled home Riley II and Wilson scored on a throwing error to give Community Harvest a 3-0 lead. Animo Venice got a run back in the second when Moises Amador scored from third on a wild pitch.
RBI singles by Juarez in the second inning, Kevin Dominguez in the fourth inning and Frankie Victorio and Henriguez in the fifth inning stretched the Golden Eagles’ lead to 7-1. The teams met twice in Crosstown League play, with Community Harvest winning the first 8-2 and rallying from a six-run deficit to win the second, 11-10.
Animo Venice crept closer in the sixth when Fabian Martinez walked and scored on an error and Lorenzo Martinez scored on a sacrifice fly by Angel Lopez that cut the Golden Eagles’ lead to 7-3.
-- Steve Galluzzo