South Gate Pounds Crenshaw to Win City Title

SOUTH GATE — The South Gate Rams were awe-struck.

The baseball team dressed in the Dodger Stadium locker room and took the field last Thursday to compete for the City Section 3-A championship. For 11 seniors, it may have been their last time in an organized baseball game.

But the Rams were not intimidated by the Crenshaw Cougars (24-4), who were making a return trip to the finals, or pitcher Mark Jones and his 16-0 record. South Gate (26-5) had two big innings--scoring three runs in the second and four more in the fifth--to beat Crenshaw, 9-5.

It was the Rams’ third City title, and their first since 1960. They also won in 1955.

“We’ve been to the playoffs three consecutive years, but we would come up a dollar short,” said Rams catcher Carlos Molina, a senior. “This year we cashed it in.”

Jones (16-1) had been virtually unstoppable all season, throwing two no-hitters. But South Gate picked apart Jones with walks, heads-up base running and a few timely hits. Raul Quintero had a two-run triple and Jose Montenegro had a run-scoring single to account for the three runs in the second. Rams Richard Alcantar and Alonso Lopez combined to throw a four-hitter.

After the Cougars fought back to tie the score, 3-3, in the third, South Gate scored one run in the fourth and four more in the fifth to break the game open. Julian Sanchez’s RBI double and Robert Felix’s sacrifice fly were the big hits in the fifth.

“This feels great,” Alcantar said after signing a souvenir baseball. “I never thought I would play at Dodger Stadium.”