A picture perfect late spring day at beautiful LVLL was the setting for a classic game between the Long Beach Little League Major Padres and the LVLL Major Dodgers. Emotions ran high and the play was tight in a game that "we've all been waiting for." From the first batter, it was clear that the Dodgers were not intimidated by the hard-throwing LB righthander, as they scored a run on three hits in the first inning. LB scored three in their half of the first with the help of three Mondesi Blanchard walks and a crucial throwing error. Mondesi settled down after that and set down the next 12 out of 13 Padres, striking out 10 of them. Meanwhile the Dodgers continued to hit away, scoring 1 in the 2nd inning, 3 in the 3rd, and Josh Fischer clouted a colossal jack deep to left center to make the score 6-3, Dodgers. And then, the sixth inning came, and some wackiness ensued. The first batter reached on catcher's interference of all things, and Mondesi retired LB's big slugger for the first out. Nate Polar entered, gave up a single and the next batter crushed one to deep left center... and it bounced off the TOP of the fence and back in the field. This was followed by a walk, a pop out, and with runners on 2nd and 3rd, the Padres flared a single to right field for the win. This was quite an intense game, and the Dodgers are far from defeated--they are itching to play again, and they will get the chance Monday June 21st versus the Plaza Mariners at 5pm.
It is well understood that this was our first game all year where we matched a foe that was in our class. For all of our struggles with the Angels, it was clear that they did not possess the all around hitting that the Dodgers had. And this Dodgers team that had all year been difficult to focus on a twenty four game schedule were ballplayers today. When we went down 3-1 in the first, there was not the sense of deflation that accompanied the Dodgers' first foray into the short side of the ledger lo so many months ago. In this case, every single member of the Dodgers contributed in a way, whether it was on the field or in the dugout. Without question, though, our Brick, who drove in the 3rd and 4th runs of the game and gave the Dodgers the lead with a hard hit double to the wall, was the highlight of the day. His smile could have lit up the dark side of the moon. The fact that it was immediately followed by Nick's slashing single down the right field line to score another run was almost too much to take. Again, we are undaunted, and fear nothing.
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