Page 4 July 17, 2014 Manhattan Beach Overwhelms Lennox Seniors By Joe Snyder Inspired with its come-from-behind 11-9 win in the finals of the District 37 All-Star Tournament on July 5, the Lennox Senior (ages 15-16) Little League Baseball team played in a more challenging Section 4 Tournament in a much larger Marine Park Field in Manhattan Beach last week. Lennox hit four home runs, including two in the bottom of the seventh, to pull off their district crown at a small Jim Thorpe Park field in Hawthorne, but was unable to hit any homers in a professional-sized field that is nearly twice the size. Lennox, managed to advance to the championship finals but found powerful Manhattan Beach overwhelming in a six-inning mercy rule 16-4 loss last Thursday. Lennox started well, leading 3-2 after the first inning with three runs in the bottom of the inning. It started when Michael Zambrano singled. One out later, Carlos Jacobo and Ralph Garcia walked to load the bases. Robert Chavez doubled home Zambrano and Jacobo to tie the game. After two out, Jose Silva singled to give Lennox the lead. Manhattan Beach, though, scored four times in the top of the third to take a 6-3 lead but Lennox cut its deficit to one run in the bottom of the fourth when Raul Garcia singled home Kayla Hamaguchi, who was the starting and losing pitcher. The fifth and sixth innings saw a more physical and talented Manhattan Beach squad wear down Lennox with five runs apiece. Two-run singles by Ty Conrad and Joey Hanson sparked Manhattan in the fifth and sixth, in order. Lennox was unable to muster any runs in either the fifth or sixth, which enabled Manhattan to finish it off an inning early due to the 10-run-plus mercy rule. “We made a lot of errors,” Lennox manager Celso Castro said. “Manhattan Beach was the better team.” Manhattan Beach was the District 36 champion. Both its seniors and juniors enjoyed Lennox baserunner Kennedy Guillen runs toward third base enroute to scoring a run in last Saturday's Junior Little League Baseball All-Star game against North Torrance. North outlasted Lennox 11-9 in eight innings. Photos by Joe Snyder. success. Three years ago, Manhattan’s seniors made it to the World Series where they finished third. They advanced to the regional finals in each of the past two seasons. Lennox started the tournament on July 7 with an 8-7 win over District 25 champion Santa Monica before losing its first game to Manhattan 7-1 a day later. On July 9, Lennox won its second game over Santa Monica 6-4. A two-run triple by Josh Salcedo keyed Lennox in that contest. Manhattan Beach was led by Rollie Nichols who had two hits and drove in four runs. Dom Devitco had a two-run double. Lennox Juniors Stay Alive With a large majority of its players from its Southern California championship and Western Regional finalist 50/70 (ages 11-13) All-Star team of last year involved, the Lennox Junior (ages 13-14) Little League baseball team was seeking to go as far or, possibly, even further. Lennox was able to sweep Tri Park for the District 37 championship on July 6 and 7, but ran into a road block with an eight-inning 11-9 loss to District 27 champion North Torrance last Saturday at North Venice Little League Field. Last Sunday, though, Lennox got another shot at North by routing District 25 champion Santa Monica 15-4 in a five-inning mercy rule game. Against North, Lennox trailed 7-0 entering the bottom of the sixth inning before exploding for nine runs to grab a 9-7 lead. With standout Cardinal Fernandezees pitching, Lennox had hopes of hanging on to top North and face powerful Manhattan Beach, the District 36 champion, on Sunday. Fernandezees, who was an all-Del Rey League pitcher at co-league champion Gardena Serra High last spring, got stunned when he gave up a game tying two-run home run to Robert Rodriguez in the top of the seventh. After Lennox went out in order in the bottom of the seventh, North came back with two runs in the top of the eighth, then, again, held Lennox scoreless in the bottom of the inning for the win. Lennox routed Santa Monica for its rematch with North last Monday. North was crushed by Manhattan Beach 24-5 in a five-inning mercy rule game last Sunday. Lennox, though, appears that it could be without Fernandezees who has back problems. Salvador Mercado had two hits and drove in two runs for Lennox against North. Kennedy Guillen also had two hits with one run batted in. Jesus Sanchez and Luis Garcia had run-scoring hits in the sixth. Kyle Hatu went four-for- four with two RBI’s for North. Lennox captured the District 37 crown with wins of 11-1 and 6-5 in 11 innings over Tri Park on July 6 and 7, respectively. Jesus Sanchez had a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th to help Lennox clinch the crown. • Second baseman Ralph Garcia of Lennox catches a pop fly in last Thursday's Section 4 Senior Little League Baseball finale against Manhattan Beach. Manhattan Beach routed Lennox 16-4.
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