Culver City High’s baseball team surprised observers by advancing to the CIF-Southern Section semifinals, where the team was narrowly defeated by Irvine Woodbridge High, 2-1, in the semifinals at Culver City.
The Centaurs had a senior player on both the Blue and Red teams, and head coach Rick Prieto coached the Blue Stars with Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula’s Dennis Gonsalves in the 42nd annual South Bay All-Star Classic at Redondo High.
Prieto and Gonsalves’ squad ended up topping the Reds, 2-1, as seven different pitchers combined for a one-hitter.
“It was a good game,” said Prieto. “There was very good pitching by both teams.”
The Centaurs’ Rodney Bradley went 0-for-2 for the Blues and the Reds’ Ryan Mulvihill also failed to get a hit.
Mulvihill plans to play baseball at West Los Angeles College or Los Angeles Harbor College next season.
The Blues had 11 hits but only one went for extra bases – a ground-rule double from San Pedro’s Anthony Conjura.
Torrance’s Ralph Ramirez and David Bell (El Segundo) each had run-scoring singles in the bottom of the second inning.
Another Tartar batter, Michael Encinas, singled in a run in the fourth.
In the top of the sixth, Nigel Nootbar (El Segundo) had the Reds’ only hit but drove in a run with it.
The Blue squad had starting pitcher Christian Torres of Peninsula, Ralph Ramirez (Torrance), Sean Issac (Mira Costa), Alan Velasco (Banning), Hector Avila (Narbonne) and closer Grant Wessell (Redondo) combine for the gem. They combined to strike out 14 batters.
