Little League: Tigers rally in the seventh

Steve Virgen

COSTA MESA - The Costa Mesa American Little League Tigers of the

Majors’ division never gave up in an interleague game against the

National’s Astros Saturday at Costa Mesa High.

Down, 3-1, after three innings the Tigers (2-0) stormed back with

seven runs in the fifth inning to take an 8-4 victory over the visiting

Astros.

“The kids never quit,” Tigers’ Coach Ted Spoulos said. “We had a

couple of errors, but we never got down and we came back in the game.”

Nick Peterson began the fifth-inning rally when he made contact for an

RBI single. Steve Hamasaki then smacked a two-run double for the Tigers’

first lead. Alex Moralez extended the lead with his own two-run double.

Chris Rodriguez and Jason Schroeder earned RBIs to round out the scoring.

“We were pretty confident,” Hamasaki said of the Tigers’ thoughts when

they were down.”

The Astros (0-2), coached by Rick Fisher and Sam Bertoni, started to

come back in the sixth inning. Matthew Pisarski sent a shot over the

centerfield fence for a home run with one out. But, the Tigers’ Cody

Waldron struck out the next two batters to end the threat.

Nick Peterson, of the Tigers, pitched four innings without allowing a

hit as he struck out eight batters. But, the Astros took advantage of

Tiger errors for three unearned runs. The Tigers’ Cody Waldron finished

the last two innings as he struck out three and allowed just one run.

The Astros’ Caleb Burgess pitched three scoreless innings with five

strikeouts through five innings.

COSTA MESA AMERICAN LITTLE LEAGUE

Tigers, Majors Division

28 Adam Gardner

25 Steven Hamasaki

1 Andrew Millian

11 Alex Moralez

5 Nick Peterson

3 Chris Rodriguez

22 Scott Schaffer

9 Jason Schroeder

10 Cody Spoulos

30 Scott Surdyka

6 Cody Waldron

4 Philip Weber

Co-Managers: Ted Spoulos and Pete Peterson

COSTA MESA NATIONAL LITTLE LEAGUE

Astros, Majors Division

18 Drew Bertoni

20 Caleb Burgess

16 Ricky Campo

14 Kory DeAngelo 15 Brandon Esping

13 Austin Evett

12 Brad Fisher

22 T.J. Lanford

23 Matthew Pisarski

19 Lawrence Thunnell

11 Kevin Wright

Manager: Sam Bertoni

Coach: Rick Fisher