Baseball: Newport drops Regional opener
Joseph Boo
MORENO VALLEY - Newport Harbor, you’re not in Orange County
anymore.
Moreno Valley’s Sunnymead Field was an ungracious host for Newport
Harbor Baseball Association’s Bronco (11-12) All-Star Baseball team in
its first trip to the PONY League West Zone Regionals Friday.
Not only did Newport drop its opener, 6-2, to Corona, it was hurt by
what Newport felt was umpiring biased to the Riverside County
representative.
“Let me put it this way,” Newport Manager Kevin Heenan said. “For the
level of baseball we’re playing right now, I thought the umpiring was
inadequate.”
Newport suffered through a stingy strike zone, a balk, and a failed
stolen-base attempt. The balk was called because Newport’s pitcher leaned
toward home plate as he threw a pickoff throw to first base, That led to
Corona’s first run.
“I wouldn’t say the umpiring cost us the game,” Heenan said. “But it
did change the momentum of the game.”
Down, 2-0, in the fifth, Newport briefly took the momentum by tying
the game. Dennis Heenan got his third hit of the game with an RBI single
that scored Kurt Yacko, who reached on a fielder’s choice after a Tim
Cramer single.
After Heenan’s hit, Billy Munce ripped a line drive in the left-center
gap for a double. That brought Heenan home to tie the game.
Newport had a chance to take the lead in the fifth, but a would-be
base stealer was thrown out on an extremely close play. Instead, Corona
pounded out six hits in the seventh to win the game.
“This was a good game,” Heenan said. “We got two double plays, one
pickoff and one guy thrown out at first, and they made two double plays.
Except for that last inning, our guys did pretty good, and they played
hard.”
Yacko, Nick Frazier and Donnie Hunt also had hits for Newport, which
plays for survival today at Sunnymead, on 4 p.m.
A victory today sends Newport back on Sunday at 1 p.m. with two
victories necessary to stay alive.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.