Little League All-Stars Beat Beverly Hills

The Culver City Little League 11 & 12-year-old all-star baseball team started its long "Road to Williamsport" on a high note Sunday afternoon, coming from behind to beat rival Beverly Hills 9-5 in its first game of the District 25 Tournament at Bill Botts Field.

Starting pitcher Eli Saucedo threw two solid innings and hit a home run over the right field fence. Michael Netzel's two-RBI blast to the fence scored two more runs, but Beverly Hills fought back to take a 5-4 lead.

Culver City broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

Nicholas Tuanchaen hit a towering two-homer over the center field fence to give Culver City the lead back, 6-5, then Jason Zeidman singled to center field and Saucedo followed with a ground rule double to right field. Zeidman and Saucedo scored from third on back-to-back wild pitches for the eighth and ninth runs.

Closer Nolan Martinez came in to effectively shut down Beverly Hills and he earned the victory.

Culver City is managed by Chip Netzel and coached by Pete Mitchell, Scott Zeidman and Chris Martinez. Rounding out the squad are Justin Weiner, Ryan Weiner, Nico Gonzalez, Matt Stewart, Marcus Brown, Daniel Aceves, Mason Mulvihill and Jake Benun. 

Culver City’s next game is Wednesday at 5 p.m. against West Los Angeles at Bill Botts field against West Los Angeles.  

In the 9-10 division, Culver City routed City of Angels 14-0 in its first game Saturday and will play Santa Monica West on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Ladera Little League fields. The winner continues on in the winner's bracket to play either Beverly Hills or Ladera on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. 

In the 10-11 division, Culver City crushed Beverly Hills 20-4 on Sunday and will play Santa Monica East on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Ladera Little League fields. The winner will play Friday at the same time against the Malibu-Wrigley winner.

In the Junior division, Culver City will play its first game Friday at 5:30 p.m. against either Santa Monica East or City of Angels at Bill Botts Field. 

Culver City's 11-12 softball all-star softball team lost twice in the District 25 playoffs, falling to host West Los Angeles 6-0 on Saturday, then losing by the same score in an elimination game Sunday.

The 9-10 softball all-stars from Culver City are still very much alive. After a 6-0 shutout of North Venice in the first round last Saturday, Culver City crushed Malibu 20-3 on Sunday and will play host West Los Angeles in the finals of the winner's bracket at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Whichever team wins advances to the championship game at 10:15 a.m. Sunday.