Little League Baseball All-Stars Bounce Back

Perhaps playing one day after its first defeat helped the Culver City 11-12 all-stars because it gave them little time to dwell on their 9-5 loss to West LA on Wednesday.

Culver City was back on the field Thursday in an elimination game against Santa Monica East at Bill Botts Field and this time the home team won 16-0 in four innings to advance to the semifinals of the loser's bracket, where they will play North Venice at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The highlight of the game was back-to-back-to back home runs by Michael Netzel, Nolan Martinez and Nicholas Tuanchaen for Culver City's last three runs. Netzel had hit a homer earlier in the game.

"I'm proud of the guys for coming out 24 hours later after a challenging loss to regroup, keep their heads high and battle," Culver City Manager Chip Netzel said. "We knew it was an elimination game, we had to play smart baseball and we came out right from the get-go and put the bat on the ball, had outstanding pitching and had solid defense to put Santa Monica on their heels and we took it from there."

If Culver City wins Tuesday, it will play the loser of Wednesday's winner's bracket final between West Los Angeles and Ladera in the loser's bracket final at 5 p.m. July 7.

"We're not looking ahead [to a rematch with West LA], we're just looking at the next game," Netzel said. "We've been there in the loser's bracket the last two years and you get battle tough when you have to play every day so we're hoping that'll help us." 

In the 10-11 division, Culver City plays Ladera at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the loser's bracket, with the winner playing either Santa Monica West or West LA on July 8 in Ladera Heights.

In the 9-10 division, Santa Monica West beat Culver City 17-6 in the semifinals of the winner's bracket. Culver City dropped to the loser's bracket, where it will play Culver Marina at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Ladera Heights in an elimination game.

In the Junior division, Friday night's Culver City-City of Angels winner plays North Venice at 5:30 p.m. in the winner's bracket July 8 at Bill Botts Field.