José Mendoza and Michael Rodriguez Lead Park View Into The District 42 Driver’s Seat
- Updated: July 2, 2018
(Fireball hurler José Mendoza of Chula Vista’s Park View Little League delivers one of his 86 pitches he threw Sunday in a complete game shutout over arch-rival Eastlake Little League of Chula Vista. PVLL won, 6-0. Photo courtesy of Jon Bigornia.)
Watch out Southern California, because Chula Vista’s Park View Little League all-star team is for real and ferocious. On Sunday, in front of a monster-sized crowd of perhaps several hundred or even a thousand fans at their home field, José Mendoza and Michael Rodriguez led Park View to a 6-0 victory over District 42’s reigning champion, and PVLL’s arch-rival, Eastlake Little League of Chula Vista.
“It’s amazing,” is how Rodriguez described to CaliSports News the feeling after shutting out Eastlake. “They’re the best team we could play.”
Rodriguez had blasted a solo home run that he hit so hard that an American Airlines jet had to be diverted to avoid any contact with the ball, and he added an RBI single to be arguably Park View’s best hitter in the game. When asked how it felt to be one of PVLL’s heroes, Rodriguez responded: “it feels great.”
(The players on Chula Vista’s Park View Little League team celebrate Michael Rodriguez‘s 4th-inning solo home run Sunday. Rodriquez on the far left also contributed an RBI single during Park View’s 4-run rally in the 2nd inning. Photo courtesy of Jon Bigornia.)
But, the player that deserves the game ball is Mendoza who threw a complete game 86-pitch shutout, and belted his own solo homer. Mendoza was an absolute beast on the mound. Someone needs to clock that kid’s pitches with a radar gun, because his velocity was not human.
With the win, Park View clinched a trip to the district semi-finals to be held at Sweetwater Valley Little League’s home field in Bonita on Thu., Jul. 5, when PVLL will battle against Chula Vista American Little League of Chula Vista. As CVALL defeated Sweetwater Valley on Sunday, Park View has become the heavy favorite to take the district title and perhaps even represent Southern California at the West Region tournament in San Bernardino. Yes, Park View is that good.
After two games, PVLL has not given up a run, outscoring its opponents by a combined score of 21-0, including a 15-0 blowout over Imperial Beach Little League of Imperial Beach on Saturday. Beating Eastlake was huge, because that team is no slouch. Most of its players were part of last year’s club that won the SoCal title for 11-year-olds.
With the loss, Eastlake dropped to 1-1, and will next play on Tuesday on its home field against the winner of Monday’s elimination game between San Diego’s Luckie Waller Little League vs. Imperial Beach.
(Players on Chula Vista American Little League of Chula Vista celebrate after winning their game in dramatic fashion Sunday. Photo courtesy of Rodney Regala.)
Before we recap Sunday’s amazing game in which Chula Vista American, playing on its home field, battled back from a 4-1 deficit to upset Sweetwater Valley, 6-5, in the bottom of the sixth and final inning, first, I wish to use this opportunity to say mazal tov, congratulations, and thank you to all of my readers that helped make my story on Abby Steffen, Sweetwater Valley’s First Female All-Star, the no. 1 most-read article for the month of June at CaliSports News !! Thanks to everyone.
Sadly, far too many sports journalists echo the pathetic mantra that supposedly “no one cares about Little League.” As a result, we are left with myriads of Southern California Little League baseball fans dying for coverage, while so many media outlets ignore them, and very few even blog about the sport. Until CSN changed that.
Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together and give it up for CaliSportNews.com’s courageous Editor-in-Chief Mario Hicks, who without hesitation, granted the green light when your favorite rabbi/NHL writer, after the conclusion of the Anaheim Ducks’ season, requested permission to cover Little League until pro hockey resumes in the Fall. Yes, it was my idea, as Little League is my favorite spectator sport, and true, I did up front assure my editor that Little League is of major interest in SoCal, and would be popular among CSN’s readers, but without Mr. Hicks’ approval, folks, this would not be happening.
In addition, special thanks are due to my good friend and esteemed colleague, CSN’s NHL Director of Content Jeff Duarte who is a diehard fan of the Los Angeles Kings that recruited Rabbi Rabbs to contribute articles about my Ducks. Mr. Duarte is a Canadian and all about hockey. He probably does not give two flying pucks about baseball, and likely cares even less about Little League than he does about his native curling, in which during this year’s Winter Olympics, Jeff demonstrated almost zero interest. Without Jeff, I would never have been part of CSN. More than that, he has been so amazingly supportive of his Anaheim beat writer switching gears to cover Little League. In doing so, Jeff has actually assisted me too in behind-the-scenes work, even though that baseball coverage is not part of his job description.
I also wish to mention Jeff kept me on CSN despite my not being available to work for seemingly 300 days per year due to religious obligations, and having missed what felt like another 30 during the past hockey season while staying in a hospital. He even talked me out of quitting about a dozen times, and has tolerated all of my insane Facebook posts. Jeff is probably my favorite boss for whom I have ever worked, and very much should be credited for anyone even reading this article, despite me not even working for him this summer.
In any event, CSN now covers Jeff’s Kings and Rabbs’ Ducks; the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, Rams, Chargers, Dodgers, Angels, and Galaxy; the San Diego Padres and Gulls; the Ontario Reign; gambling (don’t ask); and the Southern California Little League all-stars tournament. And guess what? Little League fans have already shown that their sport’s interest level can compete with that of the big leagues, just as a girl can compete with all-star boys.
Not only has CSN changed the landscape, but has done so quickly, as two San Diego television stations each read my Abigail Steffen article, and then contacted her family asking for their stations’ own interviews with Abby. CSN is the pioneer, the trend-setter, so stay with CSN for all of your Little League coverage, especially those readers following California’s District 42, as that is where CSN focuses its attention. Perhaps the popularity of my articles will grow so strong this summer that it will encourage Mr. Hicks for next year to grant to me permission to hire my own staff of writers to cover other perennially-competitive tournaments such as District 40 in the San Fernando Valley, and Districts 62 and 68 in Orange County.
Speaking of District 42, major thank you to Ernie Lucero and the good people of that district for re-adjusting their tournament schedule to accommodate CSN. Originally, both of Sunday’s games had been slated for 1 pm starts. But, because I wanted to cover each in person, District 42 graciously moved the start of the Sweetwater Valley vs. Chula Vista American game to 12:30 pm, while pushing the start of the contest between Park View vs. Eastlake back to 2 pm, giving your crazy rabbi/blogger 83 minutes to watch SVLL battle against CVALL, and then another seven minutes to drive to PVLL before the start of the second game.
That was so kind and thoughtful of District 42 to do that for me. Just imagine trying to get the NHL to change its schedule when the Kings and Ducks play at the same time and see how that goes. I love covering Little League!
It was great that I attended those games, too, because of District 42’s eight teams competing in the tournament, none of them, not one, had set up a Game Changer account. So, without CSN’s in-person coverage, most readers would not even have access to box scores much less any worthwhile recaps of the action. As such, CSN is filling a huge void for SoCal’s Little League community.
As it turned out, I stayed more than 83 minutes at the first game, and as a result, I missed the start of the second game. So, big thanks to my good friend Rodney Regala and Park View’s extremely helpful board of directors for filling me in on what I had missed.
As for that first game, Sweetwater Valley had jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the 2nd inning on a 2-out grand slam home run by Johnny Scott that he hit over the dead-center fence.
(Johnny Scott of Bonita’s Sweetwater Valley Little League leaps high into the air as he approaches home plate after hitting a 2-out 2nd inning grand slam Sunday. Photo courtesy of Rodney Regala.)
I had attended Sweetwater Valley’s very first team practice back on June 10, and I remember watching Scott blast a series of rockets during his batting practice. That kid can hammer the ball, and that showed on Sunday.
However, SVLL could not hold its lead, and in the 3rd inning, CVALL rallied to tie the score, 4-4, on back-to-back homers. Roman Cruz hit the first one, a 2-run shot, and then Nicolas Pino delivered the second one to tie the score.
SVLL retook the lead, 5-4, in the top of the 5th inning, but CVALL again tied the score in the bottom half of the 5th inning. The ballgame remained deadlocked at 5-5 going into the bottom of the 6th and final inning. That is when Pino singled home the winning run.
There was some controversy during that contest, as in the top of the 5th inning, Scott got called out trying to score in a close play at the plate. Sweetwater Valley argued that the Chula Vista American catcher had obstructed home plate, forcing Scott to run wide of the plate. Here is a photo of that play:
(Johnny Scott of Bonita’s Sweetwater Valley Little League tries to avoid the tag as he approaches home plate in the 5th inning Sunday. Photo courtesy of Rodney Regala.)
Chula Vista American is now 2-0 this summer after blowing out San Diego’s Southwest Little League, 15-1, on Saturday. Sweetwater Valley dropped to 1-1, and will next play on Tuesday on its home field against the winner of Monday’s elimination game between Southwest vs. Chula Vista National Little League of Chula Vista. Until then, stay tuned !!
Let’s Go SoCal !!
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