On the road to the Little League World Series, the Encinitas Little League all-star team has an off-day in the West Regional tournament in San Bernardino, after assuring itself of a berth in the semifinals with a second victory Monday.
Encinitas (2-1) is scheduled to conclude pool play Wednesday with an 8:30 a.m. game against the all-star team from the Mountain Ridge Little League of Las Vegas (2-0). A victory will assure Encinitas of a second-place finish in pool play and a game against the third-place finisher in Friday’s semifinals.
Wednesday’s game will be shown on the ESPN3 broadband network.
Encinitas was forced to play twice Monday when a thunderstorm forced postponement of its Sunday game against the Northern California champion.
Encinitas scored a 9-7 victory over the all-star team from the Pacifica American Little League after Nikola Ortega hit a grand slam during a five-run first inning to build a sufficient cushion to withstand a comeback attempt. Pacifica, which batted as the home team, cut Encinitas’ lead to 5-4 with two runs in both the first and second innings.
Then Encinitas scored twice in its half of the third, as Ethan Workinger’s ground out drove in Spencer Jones, who had reached on an error, and Luke Berardi doubled in Austin Machado, who was hit by a pitch.
Pacifica (1-2) again pulled within a run with two runs in its half of the third.
But Encinitas combined Jones’ single, Machado’s double and an error by Elijah Ricks, the Pacifica third baseman, for two runs in the fifth.
Pacifica scored once in the bottom of the sixth and had the potential tying run at first, but Jones struck out the final two batters to end the game for the save.
Ryan Martinez was credited with the victory, allowing three runs and three hits in 1 1/3 innings in relief of starter Peter Gagne. Jones struck out eight in 3 2/3 innings of two-hit relief.
In Encinitas’ first game Monday, the team routed another all-star team from the Dixie Little League of St. George, Utah, 15-2, scoring 11 runs in the sixth and final inning.
– City News Service contributed to this report.
