Culver Baseball Faces Tough Tournament Competition

Spring Break 2017 for the Culver City High baseball team means one thing: the Anaheim Lions Tournament. This year 62 schools from Southern California and 10 from out of state are participating in the annual tournament, including teams from Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Oregon, Illinois and Nevada.

The Culver City boys have had a rough going in the first four games as they wait to play Sunny Hills High from Fullerton this Wednesday. The Centaurs opened up with a 6-2 loss to Arlington High from Riverside last Friday in a game in Anaheim. The next day, they took one on the chin locally at Windward High, 5-3.

Culver traveled back to Anaheim to lose a 13-10 heartbreaker to King High, also from Riverside. On Tuesday, March 28, they took a 16-3 beating from Reno High, Nevada. The team came into the tournament with a modest two-game winning streak including an Ocean League win over Lawndale High last Thursday.

The Centaurs opened the league season with a 3-1 road victory at Lawndale behind the pitching of Max Sterner. Jason Zeidman led off the second inning with a single and scored on an RBI-single from Ryan Weiner. The Cardinals tied the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the third inning for their only run.

Culver took the lead for good in the top of the fifth inning as Mason Le was hit by a pitch, advanced on a Lawndale outfield error and scored on an error to right field. Zeidman opened the sixth inning with a walk and was driven home by a Bobby Capa single for the insurance run. The team will complete their two-game league series at Culver High on Thursday, April 6.

The Centaurs had only five hits in their opening tournament loss to Arlington. Ryan Weiner started the game on the mound for Culver. Le walked and was driven-in by Zeidman in the first inning. Andrew Olmeda singled and scored on an Aceves RBI-single in the fifth inning.

On Saturday at Windward High the Centaurs took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a home run by Sterner. The Wildcats responded with three runs in the fourth and two more in the sixth. Aceves and Donovan Haase scored for Culver's two-run rally in the seventh inning only to come up short.

Monday's tournament game loss to King High was a barnburner. The Centaurs' two runs in the first inning were short-lived as the Wolves took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the inning. King added a run in thesecond before Culver tied it at 4-4 in the fourth. Again, King scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth to regain the lead.

The Centaurs launched a five-run attack in the fifth inning to give them a 9-6 lead. They added another run in the sixth but the lead soon dissipated as the Wolves tied the game up at 10-10 with four runs in the bottom of the inning. King delivered the crushing blow with three runs in the seventh and final inning.

Sterner led the team with three hits while Matt Rummelsburg added two doubles and a sacrifice fly while Le added two hits also. Rummelsburg scored three runs, Aceves and Ryan Weiner added two each while Eli Saucedo, Sterner and Le each scored a run.

Culver managed only six hits in Tuesday's 16-3 loss to Reno High. The Huskies scored one run in the first inning, eight in the second, one in the fifth before unloading for six runs in the sixth. The Centaurs scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh.

Ryan Weiner had two hits and scored a run and his brother Justin added a hit and an RBI. Zeidman had a hit, a run and an RBI, Alex Smith scored a run, Haase had a hit as did Mason Le. Culver City is now 4-8 in its early pre-league tournament schedule.

After next Thursday's game versus Lawndale the Centaurs will host Torrance High on April 7 before they resume defending their Ocean League title the following week against El Segundo.

After that two-game league series matchups will continue each week against Hawthorne, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. There are also three Chatsworth Tournament games scheduled for the last three Saturdays in April.