Senior All-Stars Score Mercy-Rule Win

The Manhattan Beach Senior All-Stars’ march toward a return to the Senior Division Little League World Series continued Thursday with a comprehensive 10-0 victory over Scottsdale, Ariz.

MB improved to 2-0 in pool play with the five-inning, mercy-rule win over the Mountain View Little League seniors at historic Littleton Stadium in Ontario, Calif. With the loss, Arizona falls to 1-1 in Pool B.

Manhattan Beach can secure a berth in the tournament semifinals with a victory at 3 p.m. today in Pool B vs. the Kent/Chinook Little League seniors from Kent/Buckley, Wash.

MB is tied with tournament host Chino at 2-0 atop Pool B after Chino pounded Oregon (0-2) 20-0 on Tuesday. Chino and MB will meet in the tournament’s final round-robin game at 6 p.m. Sunday.

MB played well in all three aspects of the game: pitching, hitting and fielding.

Jared Terry pitched 4-2/3rds innings of shutout baseball. MB Manager Carlos Rojas took Terry out of the game before he reached the 65 pitch limit, a move that will allow Terry to pitch on Monday.  

Terry gave up three hits, while striking out five and walking just one. In relief of Terry, Greg Whitaker earned the final out of the 5-inning game on a strikeout.

Little League rules limit the number of pitches a player can throw in a day, and a formula that includes pitch count and appearances in a week also limits the number of times a pitcher can throw in a week.

Rojas, the pitching coach at Mira Costa High School, has nine pitchers on his 16-player roster. That number gives him great flexibility for a tournament in which his team must play six games in eight days.

MB’s hitters have scored 22 runs in two tournament games.

On Thursday, Manhattan Beach combined nine hits with seven walks to score 10 runs. Garrett Wells continued to be red-hot at the plate, going 2-for-3, with a triple and three runs batted in.

Whitaker belted a double and a single in two at-bats and scored a run. Richie O'Reilly smacked a run-scoring double. Jack Hadley was 2-for-2 with an RBI and run a run scored.

The gloves came out to play, too.

In the field, shortstop Trent Hammond and second-baseman Jack Hadley turned a nice double play. Kevin Lopez made a diving catch in center field.

O'Reilly was solid behind the plate. MB finished with no wild pitches or passed balls on a field where either can be costly.

NOTES

LONG SHOT: Jay Littleton Field in Ontario’s John Galvin Park is nearly 90 years old. The wooden grandstand of Littleton Field has been used as the setting for several Hollywood movies. Most recently it was seen in “Eight Men Out."

Home runs will be hard to come by for the 15- and 16-year-old Little League Senior Division hitters. The ivy-covered centerfield fence is 407 feet from home plate. For perspective, that is four feet longer than the centerfield wall at Dodger Stadium.

POOL A: On Wednesday, the senior all-stars from Hilo, Hawaii, defeated Mountain Ridge Little League of Las Vegas 11-1, and Rocklin Little League of Rocklin, Calif., defeated Laurel Little League of Laurel, Mont., by the same 11-1 score.