Baseball: CdM falls, 10-3

Joseph Boo

FULLERTON - The Corona del Mar Pony All-Star (13 year olds)

baseball team already had quite a bit of setbacks to fight through.

But when East Hills of Anaheim took a 5-0 lead in the first inning,

that proved to be too much as CdM fell, 10-3, in Friday’s 13-year-old

District Sectional Baseball Tournament elimination game at Amerige Park.

CdM, without the services of Blaine Gribble and Grant Almquist due to

injuries, battled back to cut East Hills’ lead to 5-3 in the top of the

third. But that as close as CdM got, as East Hills put the game away with

a three-run seventh.

“We played well, and our kids hit well,” CdM Manager Kevin Quick said.

“But we made some mistakes.”

Among its mistakes, CdM lost two baserunners on base. The first time,

in the fourth, cost CdM an opportunity to have two runners in scoring

position with one out. The second out of which was a questionable pickoff

at first base in the sixth inning.

But it was the baserunning of Matt Silva that led to all three CdM

runs in the third. Spencer Herbert led off with a walk. An out later,

Blake Allred singled, and CdM had a man on first and third.

Silva then attempted a sacrifice bunt. East Hills’ first baseman

fielded the ball and threw to his second baseman covering first. But the

ball went off Silva and bounced into foul territory. Herbert scored on

the sacrifice, and Allred came home on the error. Silva later came home

on a groundout by T.J. Bernardy.

Those were the only runs for CdM. It managed seven hits, but East

Hills scattered all of them. Allred, Wes Presson and Andrew Beck each

went 2 for 3 at the plate for CdM, all singles.

East Hills put up five runs in the first off four singles, three walks

and an error. An RBI single by Matt White drove in East Hills’ sixth run.

Down 6-3, CdM gave up four runs in the seventh, with three errors hurting

CdM in that inning.

“We just made unfortunate mistakes at inopportune times,” Quick said.

CdM’s day was only exasperated by a strange call. The umpire forced

CdM’s pitcher to change his glove because of its color.

Quick was visibly aggitated over it. “They forced our pitcher to get

rid of his glove because of its color. Then their pitcher comes out with

the same colored glove, and he got to keep his,” said Quick.

Despite a sour ending, Quick was proud of his team’s effort, after

fending off elimination in its previous game with a win over Garden

Grove.

“We played really well, and our hitting was good,” Quick said. “Blake

hit well, Tyler Lance hit well, Wes hit well, we got some good hitting.”

“Everybody contributed for us, even the ones who came off the bench.

Every time I had to change pitcher, I had to make four or five moves, so

a lot of guys played. We got good performances from everyone throughout

the tournament.”