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Culver City High School pitcher Alejandro Andrews throws to a Westchester batter. The Dirtybirds held off the Centaurs, 12-10, in that game, then finished off Culver, 19-3, in the error-plagued final. Photo by Joe Snyder
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Culver City High School’s Garrett Gemgnani gets back to first base as the throw goes to Westchester’s Robert Gsellman, Jr. in the American Legion Baseball Sixth Area Championship Series at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Dirtybirds took both gam
It certainly wasn’t how Culver City High School’s baseball team wanted to end its summer, but a nasty case of fumble-fingers cost the Centaurs in the championships of their vacation season-ending tournament. The varsity players will rest up this month before they begin conditioning activities or participate in fall and winter sports at Culver High.
Culver City looked impressive with wins over Acton’s Vasquez and Westchester through the first two days of the three-day American Legion Baseball Sixth Area Tournament.
On the final day, the Centaurs picked a bad time to have the bad day. A rash of errors put Culver City down in 12-10 and 19-3 losses to Westchester at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.
“Baseball is a funny game,” Centaur head coach Rick Prieto said. “We did great the first two days then things went quite a bit wrong.”
Everything seemed to go wrong for the Centaurs.
The first game saw Culver City fall behind 11-4 through six innings before rallying to climb within one run. In the end, though, the Dirtybirds were able to hold on for a 12-10 victory, sending the championship into the second game.
The second game was a complete disaster for the Centaurs. They committed an astounding 13 errors and were buried, 19-3, in a seven-inning mercy rule contest.
Culver City was hoping to bounce back from the tough first-game loss in the approximately 90-degree heat with high humidity. The Centaurs jumped to an early lead in the top of the first inning when Devon Sylvester scored on a wild pitch from Westchester pitcher Dan Skahill before the Dirtybirds tied the game with a run in the bottom of the inning when Randall Irvin scored on an error, the first of many, in a game that, despite the shortened length, proved to be a very long one for the Centaurs, which finished its summer at 15-5.
Westchester came back with two unearned runs in the second, but the Centaurs cut the Dirtybirds’ lead to 3-2 in the third when Tyler Mark drove in Lenard Mendez with a base hit.
After that, though, it was all downhill for Culver City. Westchester made it 5-2 with two runs on one hit and three more Centaur errors. By the end of three innings, Culver had already made seven miscues, but things turned very ugly from the fourth inning on.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Dirtytbirds turned the game into a rout with eight runs on seven hits, including a two-run home run by Robert Gsellman, Jr. — son of former Culver High baseball standout Robert Gsellman, Sr. —s a two-run triple from Josh Gilder, a run-scoring single from Anthony Noriega and a two-run hit by Gsellman.
In the contest, Gsellman, an all-Los Angeles City first baseman at Westchester High as a junior last spring, went 2-for-5 with five runs batted in. Gsellman was a big factor in keying the Comets to the City Division II championship by routing Western League rival Venice, 10-3, on June 5 at Dodger Stadium.
The bottom of the sixth climaxed Culver City’s defensive foibles as the team added five mistakes leading to six more Westchester runs. Randall Irwin’s two-run single and Chris Jacob’s rbi hit highlighted the inning.
The Centaurs were able to add one run in the top of the seventh when catcher Chris Caines doubled and scored on Mendez’s grounder to shortstop.
Mark led Culver’s offense by going 2-for-3 with one rbi.
The wins put the Dirtybirds into the California State Championship Tournament, held in Yountville, north of Santa Rosa.
Even though the Dirtybirds defeated the Centaurs in the first game, they committed eight errors.
Down 5-0, Culver got within two runs, 6-4, in the bottom of the fifth on an rbi base hit by Ryan Mulvihill, but the Centaurs committed two errors that helped Westchester break the game open with five runs in the top of the sixth.
With a big hole out of which to dig, the Centaurs recorded back-to-back three-run innings to cut the Dirtybirds’ lead to 11-10 after eight innings. Dylan Soules had a run-scoring single in the seventh and eighth innings to key Culver. Mark had a two-run double in the eighth.
Jordan Byrd’s run-scoring double gave Westchester a two-run lead in the top of the ninth and Culver City was shut out in the bottom of the inning.
In the second round of the winner’s bracket, the Centaurs had things their way in a 19-5 rout of the Dirtybirds. Caines had a strong all-around game for the Centaurs. In that contest, Westchester made nine errors.
In the openers, the Centaurs topped Vasquez, 8-6, and the Dirtybirds slipped past Lancaster Eastside, 2-1.
