El Segundo takes aim at World Series berth today
Little League team must defeat San Ramon's Bollinger Canyon again to win West Region
SAN BERNARDINO >> If El Segundo Little League manager Danny Boehle had a crystal ball, he'd have used his powers to foretell spending at least one day this week at home.
“I think what's going to have to happen is we're all going to drive home for half a day so our laundry and everything else gets done and come back,” Boehle said Monday.
“But (Little League) wants us to stay here and so we'll figure that out and if I had a crystal ball, it would be easy.”
Though Boehle might do a fair amount of speculation in his role as a chief financial officer in the aerospace industry, he was not able to predict what was going to happen next at the four-team West Region tournament.
“I don't have a crystal ball, though, so it's totally spur of the moment and it's `This is what we have to do now,'” he said.
It's been four days since Southern California's 11- and 12-yearold champions defeated Hawaii 6-0 in the first semifinal, and Boehle's team has spent the rest of the week just one victory away from a flight to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
“It's been nothing but a dream out here for these kids, myself included, and we look forward to continuing the mission,” Boehle said. “I think the city of El Segundo is finally getting put on the map.”
El Segundo takes on Northern California champion San Ramon's
Bollinger Canyon Little League in the winner-take-all championship game at Al Houghton Stadium today at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast by ESPN.
In the tournament opener Saturday, Bollinger Canyon starting pitcher Jay Murai struck out six over the first three innings but allowed four runs — three earned — on six hits.
“NorCal has some very good pitchers,” Boehle said. “They throw hard, but like I said, `We'd rather face speed (pitching) than offspeed.' That's a big deal for us.”
Jackson Kalish and Louis Lappe combined to hurl two-plus innings of scoreless relief of Ollie Park. Brody Brooks and Lappe had two hits apiece as El Segundo rallied to win 4-3 with three runs in the bottom of the fourth.
“NorCal only had three runs on three hits — and one of them was a solo home run — so if we stay away from the mistakes that we made by walking a batter or a hitby-pitch batter to put people on base, then it gives us a really good opportunity,” Boehle said.
So far in San Bernardino, Brooks and Lappe are a combined 7-for-8 with six runs at the top of El Segundo's lineup. Lennon Salazar is 2-for-4 with two runs.