VFW defeats American Legion, 14-0

Mike Sciacca

Majors Division regular season champion VFW backed its No. 1 seed in

the Laguna Beach Little League postseason playoffs Wednesday by routing

American Legion, 14-0.

VFW will take on surprising six seed Sportsworld in third round action

Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

VFW put the game away early as they scored four runs in the first

inning and one in the second, before blowing the game open with an

eight-run third.

During that third inning, they sent 12 men to the plate.

They scored their final run in the fourth inning, and the first five

batters in the lineup each scored twice.

Every VFW player reached base safely, with Colby Ammerman and Kevin

Buck each contributing three hits. Keegan Valaika came up with a pair of

hits and three RBI.

Ammerman and Cooper Gwaltney each drove in a pair of runs and Charles

Moothart, Devin Hands, Gabe Stansbury and Matt Austin each got an RBI.

Will Armstrong reached back on two occasions and scored both times.

Valaika dominated on the mound, allowing just one hit and a walk in

three innings of work. He also recorded three strikeouts.

Stansbury finished the game, which was called by the Mercy Rule after

four innings.

The defensive play of Buck, Stansbury, Ammerman, Gwaltney, Armstrong

and Drake Dixon kept American Legion off the scoreboard.

In other games:

American Legion 11, Hobie 8

Michael Porter, Will Burk, Jordan O’Brien, Andrew Paddon and Christian

Kessler each had two hits and Kyle Snyder and Jordan Zraick each had a

hit as American Legion won their playoff opener.

Julian Deline’s pitching and the fielding of O’Brien, Paddon, Snyder

and Noah Barker keyed American Legion on defense.

Brett Simon’s home run was a highlight for Hobie, which also received

hits from Dillon Pierce, Michael Praisler, Alex Germano, Matthew Moisen

and Eli Visolay.

Laguna Surf & Sport 14

Fire Fighters 2

Michael Tachovsky struck out 10 of the 21 batters he faced in five

innings, and a potent offense paced Laguna Surf and Sport to a first

round victory.

Caine Faire had a two-RBI double and an RBI single, John Wes Robinson

hit an RBI double, Christian Bosworth had a pair of RBI singles, Alex

Garakian had two hits and and two RBI, Matt Miller doubled and singled,

Nikko Okomoto-Coen singled twice, and Tachovsky, Phillip Le Bon, and

Dalton Sype each had RBI singles to power Laguna Surf and Sport.

The defensive efforts of Fair and Snyder backed Tachovsky’s pitching

performance.

Zack Ellis and Max Munoz had RBI singles to lead the Fire Fighters.