Encino Little League Back on the Right Track

This year's Encino Little League team has a hard act to follow. Last year, Encino won District 40, Section 2 and the North Sub-division championships, finishing third in the entire state. The only team that could stop them - eventual Little League World Series champion Ocean View.

The new cast of characters for Encino Little League looked like the same team smashing four home runs in route to an 8-1 victory over Woodland Hills Saturday afternoon at Northridge Little League.

"I thought it was really important to win our first game because you have to start out on the right foot and if you don't, you get down and it would have been tougher on us, but now that we won, we've cleared our first boundary," said Shawn Goosenberg, one of only two returning players from last year.

The Encino bats exploded in the bottom of the first for five runs. Brandon Dieter, Sam Gilderman and Michael Walsh all homered. Goosenberg and Reed Goodman scored on Walsh's three-run shot.

Encino added two more runs in the fourth. Chris Landers crushed a double and Noah Levin hit a two-run home run to extend the lead to 7-0.

Woodland Hills added a run in the fifth, but Encino answered.

Goodman hit an RBI scoring Goosenberg to make it 8-1.

Encino's next game will be against Sherman Oaks at 12 p.m. next Saturday.

District Tournament Schedule (All Games at Northridge)
1 – Northridge 20, Canyon Country 0
2 – Encino 8, Woodland Hills 1
3 – Sherman Oaks 6, Castaic 0
4 – Mission Hills vs Granada Hills (6/24)
5 – Woodland Hills vs Castaic (elim) – Castaic forfeits
6 – Canyon Country vs Loser 4 (elim) (6/30)
7 – Encino vs Sherman Oaks (6/30)  
8 – Northridge vs Winner 4 (6/30)
9 – Woodland Hills vs Loser 7 (elim) (7/1)
10 – Loser 8 vs Winner 6 (elim) (7/1)
11 – Winner 7 vs Winner 8 (7/7)
12 – Winner 9 vs Winner 10 (elim) (7/7)
13 – Loser 11 vs Winner 12 (elim) (7/8)
14 – Winner 11 vs Winner 13 (7/9)
15 – If Necessary (elim) (7/10)

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