Saturday, August 10, 1957
West Covina won two straight consolation games since Thursday afternoon's opening loss to Ontario. Ontario, in turn, was defeated Friday afternoon by Santa Ana, so they then joined the losers' bracket, where they eliminated Venice this morning.
So, as fate would have it, Ontario now had to play those scrappy, never-say-die boys from West Covina again in the consolation final. Their match to decide Third Place took place at 1:30PM today.
It was another pitchers duel extraordinaire. Keith Cardin once again started for Ontario, this time facing West Covina's Bruce Young. Both pitched masterfully, each handing their opposition 6 consecutive goose eggs, and Young striking out 15.
In the top of the 7th, a West Covina rally began when Ontario reliever Gary Spencer walked Tom Dolan. Next up, Rudy Bullen laid down what was intended to be a sacrifice bunt, but instead he got on base on a wild throw to first by Spencer. Dolan took third on the play, then crossed home plate on a wild pitch. Denny Allen followed up with a 2-run homer that capped off West Covina's inning.
Ontario started their own late rally with 2 out in the bottom of the 7th. Following 2 walks by West Covina reliever Gary Beecher, a single by Ontario right-fielder Bill Tallman drove in one runner and advanced the other to third. A hard-hit shot to third-baseman Denny Allen resulted in another Ontario run when he couldn't field the ball in time to make a play. Reliever Gary Spencer then hit another fast grounder at Allen, but this time he made the throw to first to end the game.
Thus did the underdog upstarts from West Covina claim the honor of being the third-best Little League team in all of California. They were going home as winners, after all, with an overall post-season record of 9-1.
West Covina.....000 000 3–3 2 1
Ontario.........000 000 2–2 5 2
In the final game, La Mesa defeated Santa Ana 1-0 to take the State Tournament crown.
Santa Ana.....000 000–0 2 2
La Mesa.......001 00x–1 3 1
The final brackets:
