Rotary rallies in late victory

Mike Sciacca

In a game that had been dominated by pitching and defense, it took

Alek Burk’s line shot RBI-single to left field to provide the

difference as Rotary defeated American Legion, 4-3, in Laguna Beach

Little League action at Riddle Field.

Evan Rubel raced home on the hit to score the winning run in the

bottom of the sixth inning to cap Rotary’s comeback.

American Legion had come out swinging in the first inning as

Robbie McInerny reached back on an error and later scored on Keaton

Jones’ double off the top of the centerfield fence.

American Legion had loaded the bases in the inning before Burk,

who started on the mound for Rotary, registered a pair of strikeouts

to work his way out of the jam.

Rotary’s Michael Hyden crushed a double to deep centerfield in the

bottom of the first, but was left stranded.

In the top of the second, however, Cole Kesler walked and Tyler

McRae singled for American Legion, but Burk registered two more

strikeouts to keep the score at 1-0.

Rotary moved into a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the second when Alec

Loechner beat out an infield grounder, Brogan O’Bryan reached base on

a catcher’s interference call, and Shane Takabayashi stroked a single

into centerfield, to plate Loechner with the tying run.

Jones came up with two strikeouts, though, to defuse the Rotary

rally.

American Legion broke the tie in the fourth inning by scoring

twice without the benefit of a hit, as it took advantage of a walk

and two Rotary errors to score two unearned runs in taking a 3-1

lead.

Rotary roared back in its half of the fourth inning, as Travis

Sampson got on base, then sped around from first base to score when

Loechner ripped a double to left-centerfield. With one out and

Loechner at second base, O’Bryan hit an infield ground out, but

Loechner never hesitated on the play, and bolted home from second

base to score and tie the game at 3-3.

Takabayashi took the mound for Rotary at the outset of the fifth

inning, and proceeded to send American Legion down in order.

He also shut them down in the sixth inning, striking out two while

yielding only a walk to Jack Clark, and earned the victory.

Hyden pitched two innings of no-hit relief for Burk and struck out

two.

Burk, Hyden and Takabayashi combined to limit American Legion to

two hits.

For American Legion, Jones pitched four innings and gave up five

hits while striking out three. Ben Hanson was impressive in relief,

giving up one hit while striking out one in two innings.

Defensive standouts for American Legion included Kesler, Clark and

McInerny.

Rotary was led defensively by Burk, Glazer and Ryan Takabayashi.