Ladera continued its late inning heroics with an unbelievable 9 run 6th inning rally to come from behind and defeat Santa Monica West Little League 10-9 on Wednesday evening at West LA Little League. The win keeps Ladera in the winner's bracket and advances them to the California District 25 Little League All Star Semi Final game to be played Saturday at 3PM against Santa Monica East Little League.
Once again, Ladera got off to a slow start - spotting Santa Monica a 2 run lead after the first inning. Ladera battled back for a run in the top of the second on a walk and stolen base by Lawrence Gilliam. Lawrence scored on a ground ball to second base off of the bat of Robert Togia.
Jibri Walden got the start on the mound for the White Sox but had to give way after two innings of work due to arm trouble. Robert Togia worked the middle two innings of relief. Grant Craddolph worked the final two innings and earned the win.
The Ladera defense, while not up to typical excellence, provided sufficient protection. Plays of note included a 6-4-3 double play off of a dropped line drive turned in by Kelvin Murillo, Ricky Moore, and Lawrence Gilliam. Kaelin Woodard showed off his new leather by snagging a screamer hit to the hot corner. Lawrence, returning to his regular season position at first base, demonstrated a nice piece of glove work, picking a ball out of the dirt to save an out in the 5th inning. Kelvin and Ricky were solid, filling in at shortstop and second base respectively for the middle innings.
Santa Monica continued to apply the pressure all night, scoring two runs in the 4th inning and 5 runs in the 5th inning. Ladera mounted a mini rally in the top of the 5th inning when Malik Cole sent a two strike ground ball into right field. With one out, Jordan Crisp continued the rally by legging out a ground ball to third base but the Santa Monica pitcher battled back; getting Kelvin to line out and striking out Grant.
"The Rally II"
Trailing by 8 runs, Ladera went to work in the top of the 6th inning with a single by Jibri Walden. Lawrence Gilliam followed with a double to left center; moving Jibri to third base. Ricky Moore sent a deep sacrifice fly to left field to score Jibri. Robert Togia (.500 BA), who has been extremely hot of late, sent a ground ball single up the middle to score Lawrence to make the score 9-3.
Devin Martin sent a shot to the right side that was mishandled by the first baseman to reach base. With runners at first and third, Kaelin Woodard delivered a line drive bomb that cleared the left-center field fence; 9-6. The home run was Kaelin's second on the year.
Jordan Crisp and Kelvin Murillo drew walks to continue the rally. With runners on first and second, Grant Craddolph tied the game with another monstrous fly ball that landed on the West LA Minor field. The blast was Grant's 2nd of the tournament and 10th of the year.
With the score tied, Jibri sent a bloop single to right field and moved to second base on a sneaky stolen base. Lawrence went down looking for the second out of the inning. Ricky stepped to plate and delivered an epic at bat. After reaching a full count, he fouled off pitch after pitch to stay alive. On the 8th pitch of the at-bat, he punched a single through the right side for the go ahead RBI, scoring Jibri. Ricky currently leads the team in batting with an .800 batting average. Robert followed with a deep fly ball to the right field warning track for out number 3.
Needing three outs to secure the victory, Grant returned to the mound to face Santa Monica's 6 foot leadoff batter. Using an arsenal of hard fast balls, he recorded the first out with a strike out. The next batter reached on a walk. Santa Monica's number 3 hitter stepped to the plate and dug in for a 9 pitch at bat, fouling off 3 pitches to stay alive and bring the count to full. On the 9th pitch, he sent a chopper up the middle. Jibri fielded the ball off the hop, stepped on second base, and threw to Lawrence on first base for the double play to close the game.
To quote one of the Ladera faithful in the stands, "for the second game in a row, Ladera took the lamb chop out of the wolves mouth". Call it destiny. Call it "¡buena suerte! ". Call it what you want. Ladera moves on in the winner's bracket.
The team celebrated with a Shakey's Pizza Party and will take the day off today.
The team eagerly awaits the return of Chris Henry off of the DL and Alonzo Billips from vacation.
You can find the pitch by pitch game summary here.
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