Box Score

Sang Lee GLENDALE -- With more than a three-week layoff, the time off may have affected the Indian and Padre bats a little as they combined for just six hits in the Mickey Mantle Baseball League opener for both teams. Luckily for St. Francis, four of the hits were collected by the Padres in a 3-1 victory against Burroughs Wednesday at Stengel Field in Glendale. "The players have to get back into the groove of the game. They haven't played in three weeks, so the hitting was rusty," Burroughs Coach Rick Marino said.

Charles Rich Their offenses were polar opposites. On the first day of summer league competition, the Crescenta Valley and Bellarmine-Jefferson high girls' basketball teams mixed and matched offensive creativity. The idea being to find a successful formula to implement for the regular season in late November. CV reverted back to an old formula Thursday, as star junior guard Jeanine Deno scored a game-high 16 points to lead the Falcons to a 34-28 victory in a Glendale High School Varsity Summer League game.

Edgar Melik-Stepanyan It took one inning for Gangi Builders Major Baseball Coach Curt Chase to start thinking about up-coming games. His 11- and 12-year-old Little League team scored two runs and looked impressive early on en route to a 13-2 victory against the Burbank Indians on Tuesday at Babe Herman Field in the opening-round of the Little League District 16 Tri-Cities Tournament. Chase's starting pitcher, Matt McKenzie, pitched the first inning and his relievers, Cory Galbraith and Kevin Chase, also tossed one inning, as the team mentor saved his primary pitchers for future games.

Sang Lee Identical brothers are scientifically proven to have the exact same genes. They look alike, think alike and sometimes, even act alike. So maybe it shouldn't have been too surprising when Burbank's Troy Birtell followed his twin brother's lead in the fourth inning to knock a home run over the center-field fence. Coincidentally, it was at almost the exact spot his brother Eric hit his only an inning earlier. The "Bash Brothers" helped the Indians prolong their season by defeating Vaquero Little League's Auto Body, 16-3, in the second-chance bracket of the Little League District 16 Major Baseball Tri-Cities Tournament on Thursday at Tujunga Field.

Sang Lee With school letting out its students for summer vacation at Burroughs High, baseball was probably the last thing on the minds of the players wearing Indian jerseys in a Mickey Mantle League game Monday at Stengel Field. And it was excessively noticeable as many Burroughs batters watched strikes whiz by them and surrendered an early lead in the game. When the Indians finally did wake up from their funk with three runs in the sixth inning, it was still not enough as East L.A.'s Dodgers Gray squad added an insurance run in the last inning to finalize the score, 5-3. "This week [the players]

Jeff Tully OLIVE PARK -- While dark storm clouds darted across the sky and played peekaboo with the sun high above Olive Park, Providence High softball Coach Tony King couldn't stop constantly peering up at the heavens. However, despite the impending precipitation, the only thing raining down Saturday where Pioneer hits, as they defeated Catalina Island Avalon High, 14-5, in a Liberty League game. "I was just hoping that we could get in five innings before the rains came," King said.

Sergei Aftandelian The game started promisingly for Crescenta Valley High in the first five minutes of the Glendale High Summer League contest. However, things changed for the worse as Burbank went on a seven-point run to end the first quarter and never trailed during its 56-51 victory at the Nitro gym. The game Monday featured end-to-end action, as both teams pressed each other mercilessly. Each team methodically passed the ball to beat the pressure and limited their turnovers in the process.

Charles Rich Andre Setaghian looked across the pool in amazement at the Crescenta Valley High boys' water polo team. The Burbank High coach noticed the staggering difference in experience between the two squads. Too bad Setaghian doesn't have a player the caliber of Nick Trimis. Trimis scored a team-high six goals to carry CV to a 13-4 win against the Bulldogs in a pool-play match of the sixth annual Falcon Classic on Friday at Crescenta Valley High.

Jeff Tully Providence High softball Coach Maggie Boozel might want to stencil the saying "patience takes time" on the Pioneers' uniforms this season. With a new crop of players, and some of the returning starters playing different positions, Boozel realizes it is going to take a few games until her team gels and finds its identity. She is just hoping her players will be as patient. Some of Providence's growing pains showed Monday in a nonleague game against Downey St. Matthias at Olive Park.

Jeff Tully Things got wild, and downright ugly, at times in the nonleague softball game between Providence and Bellarmine-Jefferson highs. But instead of putting down her opponent, or focusing on the bad things her team did, Pioneer Coach Maggie Boozel chose to spotlight the positives in a 24-8 victory against the visiting Guards at Olive Park. The game was called after four innings because of the 10-run mercy rule. "The good thing for us in this game is we were able to work on some things, and we were able to get some of our players into the game who normally don't get a lot of playing time," Boozel said.