For Conejo Valley Little League All-Stars, breaking up is hard to do

By Kyle Jorreyjorrey@theacorn.comPlaying for just the second time as a split league, the Conejo Valley West All-Stars felt the first sting of defeat for the CVLL since last year’s Little League World Series Championship Game, falling to the Moorpark All-Stars, 8-1, Tuesday, in the second round of the District 13 double-elimination tournament.

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers RIGHT HAND RED—Conejo Valley West All-Star Peter McAfee gets involved in a tangle up with a Moorpark base runner during Tuesday’s District 13 Little League matchup. Unable to get a read on Moorpark’s hard-throwing Matt Higginbotham, who pitched five innings of shutout ball after replacing starter Drew Hacker in the second inning, Conejo West players recorded just one hit on the afternoon, a single by center fielder Andrew Peters in the bottom of the sixth.

ACE—Conejo West All-Star Sam Mercer winds up for the pitch. After the loss, Conejo West manager Dave Becker said his team was down, but certainly not out.

“The kids were a little tense today, but the tournament is far from over,” Becker said. “So we’re going to keep our chins up, get back out to practice and try to take this thing game-by-game.”

On Field No. 1 at the same time, Conejo East improved to 20 in the tournament by defeating Thousand Oaks National, 9-1. The tournament is being hosted by Moorpark Little League.

Things looked like they might go south early in the day’s premier game as Moorpark hitters got at Conejo West starter Sam Mercer in the top half of the first inning for two runs on a RBI double by Hacker and sacrifice fly by first baseman Jake Woolley. But the squad came back in the bottom half of the inning and narrowed the margin to 2-1 when Hacker walked the bases loaded and then issued Conejo West leadoff hitter Trevor Oshea a free pass to home plate. During the inning, Hacker’s line read four walks, three strikeouts, zero hits and one run.

The score would remain the same for the next three innings as both Higginbotham and Mercer caught their grooves—fooling opposing batters with a mixture of fastballs and breaking balls.

But the rhythm interrupted in fifth for Mercer when Moorpark pinch hitter Ricky Rodriguez went deep over the center field fence for a solo home run, jumpstarting a three-run inning that would end with Moorpark safely ahead, 5-1.

Moorpark, which added three more insurance runs in the sixth to close out a game, showed why the team is considered the early favorite to emerge from District 13. This same group won District 13 as 10- and 11-year-olds and advanced to the California State Tournament .

“This is a big win for us because it shows us that our team is really coming together and we have a chance of going all the way this year,” said Higginbotham, who finished with eight strikeouts and zero walks. “Today, I was throwing really hard and they just couldn’t hit it. Plus, my curve ball was on. It was breaking a lot.”

The loss by Conejo West had some additional sting considering the circumstances surrounding the league’s split in the off season—a split demanded by Little League’s governing body shortly after last year’s team returned home with its U.S. Championship banner in hand.

“We fought it tooth and nail the whole way,” said CVLL president Rob McAfee. “But in the end, they forced us to swallow the medicine.”

According to McAfee, Little League said CVLL’s population pool stood at 55,000, far surpassing the 20,000 limit that the organization designates as the point where a league must split into two for all-star play.

But McAfee, using a multiple listing service grid and a boundary line that did not include Newbury Park, said the league’s total should be closer to 27,000— well within Little League’s standard for looking the other way.

“There are leagues all over this country running in the 30s—in Florida, Georgia and back East— but Little League throws a blind eye to them because they don’t have successful programs,” McAfee said. “But because of one very special year and one very special group of kids we come under scrutiny. . . . I guess it’s the price of success.”

McAfee was asked if he felt the demand for a split would have come if last year’s team had never made it out of Regionals.

His answer was a resounding, “No.”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” McAfee added. “One World Series appearance in 42 years and they decide to split us up. It was just one of those once-in-a-lifetime type things and now I have a feeling it won’t happen again for another 42 years.”

Despite filing a grievance with the Little League front office in Williamsport, Pa., McAfee said his pleas to keep the CVLL together fell on deaf ears.

“I’m not sure if they even read the thing,” he said. “But we fought this from September to March and in the end it was either split the league or face Little League removing our charter. We really had no choice if we wanted to have an all-star team.”

McAfee said after the summer season is over he will try again to reunite the league

On the field, Conejo West tries to get back on the winning track today at 5:30 p.m. against South Oxnard. Conejo East will take on Moorpark Saturday at 10 a.m.