Little League Minor A: CMNLL Marlins show some four-titude

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - The fourth time’s the charm for the Costa Mesa

National Little League Minor A Marlins.

After three straight interleague losses to the Costa Mesa Ameerican

Little League Devil Rays, the Marlins pulled out a 10-7 win in the first

round of the District 62 Tournament of Champions Wednesday at Costa Mesa

High.

“Each game, we got a little closer to those guys and today, we managed

to find a way to win,” Manager John Gillmore said. “In our three losses,

we would make defensive mistakes or not hit, but today we did a lot of

hitting. If we made a mistake, we just shrugged it off and moved on to

the next play.”

The win advances to the Marlins (14-5) into the quarterfinals which

will take place Saturday at noon, also at Mesa, against the winner of

tonight’s matchup between Fountain Valley No. 1 and Robinwood No. 2.

The Marlins jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Cory Ames led off the first

inning with a walk, moved to second on a groundout, advanced to third on

a wild pitch and scored on a fielder’s choice by Juan Moreno.

The Devil Rays were quick to respond in their half of the first.

With one out, Mike Kelly and Andy Gonzales each reached base. Jasen

Ruiz followed with a grounder to second and Gonzales was forced out, but

the second baseman, who had the ball, was knocked over on the play. Kelly

alertly headed home to tie the game and Ruiz advanced to second.

Ben Loundsbury capped off the inning with an RBI single to left to

drive in Ruiz and give the Devil Rays a 2-1 advantage.

Some Devil Ray wildness on the mound helped the Marlins take the lead

for good in the third inning. After three straight walks loaded the

bases, Johnny Persons and Moreno each smacked RBI singles, while Greg

Stanley added an RBI grounder, giving the Marlins a 4-2 lead.

Of the Marlins’ 10 runs, six were scored by those who walked.

The score remained 4-2 until the fifth when the Marlins turned a

two-out, bases-empty situation into a five-run explosion.

Back-to-back singles by Ames and Persons, followed by a walk to

Moreno, loaded the bases for Stanley, who smacked a two-run single to

right.

Cam Santana kept the inning alive with an RBI single to left, scoring

Moreno. After Evan Kipnis was hit by a pitch, Nick DiPietro earned a

tough RBI when he was bonked in the head with a base-loaded fastball.

Mike Gillmore followed with a run-scoring walk and, suddenly, it was

9-2 in favor of the Marlins.

“That two-out rally was the turning point, big time,” the elder

Gillmore said. “Even though we had lost three straight to these guys, we

were pretty relaxed out there and we knew we could do it.”

The Devil Rays refused to go away quietly, however. In the bottom of

the fifth, Chris Gute ripped his second hit of the game and went to third

on a wild pitch. He went to third on a single by Drake Robinson and

scored on another wild pitch.

After two walks loaded the bases, Ruiz had an RBI walk and Loundsbury

followed with a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 9-5.

Some Devil Ray trickery enabled another run to score when Gonzales

perfectly timed the catcher’s throw back to the pitcher and stole home,

cutting the deficit to 9-6.

But the rally ended there as Persons came on in relief of Mike

Gillmore and ended the inning with a strikeout.

After the Marlins added an insurance run in the sixth, the Devil Rays

answered with a run of their own, but could get no closer.