Culver City All-Stars fall to Santa Monica 10-5

Despite a tough 10-5 defeat to Santa Monica East in the Little League Baseball District 25 playoffs Tuesday evening in Ladera Heights, there is a silver lining for Culver City's 11 & 12-year-old all-stars.

They get to keep playing.

Culver City carried a 4-2 lead into the top of the fourth inning before the Santa Monica squad sent 10 batters to the plate during a five-run rally and went on to win, dropping Culver City to the loser's bracket.

Culver City faces North Venice in an elimination game Thursday at 8 p.m. back at the Ladera Little League fields. 

"We had a couple of key calls go against us and to their credit Santa Monica hit the ball well," Culver City manager Deepesh Patel said. "That's why we play the game, you never know what can happen." 

Culver City jumped out to a 3-0 lead behind starting pitcher Ryan Knight, who was sharp over the first two innings. Tristan Rodriguez led off the bottom of the first with a double and eventually scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly to center by Jared Espinoza. Culver City then took a 2-0 lead when Bryan Minoda scooted home from third on a wild pitch.

In the second inning, Julian Hugenberger singled and scored on a fielder's choice by Rodriguez to give Culver City a 3-0 lead.

Marcus Gee led off the top of the third inning with a double and, after an error put runners at the corners, Brandon Iglesias doubled to score Gee to get Santa Monica on the scoreboard. Joey Recinos followed with a base hit to score Owen Hallinan and cut Culver City's lead to 3-2. 

In the bottom of the third, Culver City took a 4-2 when Knight was hit by a pitch, moved to second and third on wild pitches and scored on Jared Espinosa's single. That set the stage for Santa Monica's game-breaking fourth inning. 

"Brandon [Iglesias] did a super job of pitching out of jams and keeping us in the game," Santa Monica East manager John Solberg said. "Then, it was our subs who came in and got that rally going in the fourth."

Trailing 7-4, Culver City got a run back in the bottom of the fourth on Espinosa's RBI double, but when Espinosa tried to score on a single he was thrown out at the plate to end the inning and prevent Culver City from creeping even closer.

Santa Monica added a run in the fifth and a Culver City rally was squelched on a controversial double play in the bottom of the fifth when a baserunner was called out for interference. A two-run home run by Joey Recinos in the top of the sixth gave Santa Monica a commanding five-run lead. 

Also contributing to Culver City's efforts were Keegan Boos, Marco Diaz, Austin Coombs-Perez, Angelo Perez, Enrique Delgado, Dilan Patel, Justin Romero and Mason Doff.

Culver City's 11-12 division all-stars play West Los Angeles at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Bill Botts Field and the 9-10 division all-stars play Santa Monica West at 6 p.m. Thursday in Ladera Heights.