District 62 Tournament of Champions: Long on drama

Bryce Alderton

FOUNTAIN VALLEY - When it gets to the semifinals of any tournament,

games seem to get closer as pitching and defense tighten up and hits

become hard to come by.

For eight innings, the Costa Mesa National Little League Majors

Division Dodgers battled the A’s from Huntington Valley. But in the end,

the A’s got the hit they needed, a single by Chas Boule to plate Drew

Duffy with the go-ahead and eventual winning run as the A’s beat the

Dodgers, 2-1, in the semifinals of the District 62 Tournament of

Champions Monday at Mile Square Park.

Boule’s hit was the third single of the inning and seventh hit for the

A’s. The Dodgers finished with four.

The loss eliminates the Dodgers (20-7), who had won their two previous

tournament games, 16-1 and 7-1.

But the Ddogers went down fighting, with fearless pitching by Justin

Long for the last five innings and sound defensive plays that made

Manager Kim Pederson proud.

“The key to this team has been (its ability to) battle all year to get

a win,” Pederson said. “This time, the breaks went the other way. With

all that pressure on, one bad play could make the difference, but it

didn’t. We didn’t give it to them. (The A’s) were a great team that put

the ball in play.”

Long pitched with runners on in every inning but the seventh, when he

retired the A’s in order. He struck out the side in the sixth, the last

two batters looking with runners on first and second.

In the fifth, the A’s again had runners at first and second with one

out, when A’s second baseman Pablo McBeth hit a line drive at Dodger

shortstop Juan Guzman, who tried to make a basket catch on the ball.

The ball bounced off Guzman’s chest to the ground right in front of

him, so he was able to scoop up the ball and quickly run to touch second

base for the force out. Long struck out the next batter to end the

inning.

Long struck out 10, walked two, and allowed one run.

The Dodgers had a chance to tie in the bottom of the eighth.

With two outs, Bryan Bennett singled up the middle, but A’s relief

pitcher Cody Moran struck out the next hitter to end the game.

Bennett and Guzman had two singles apiece.

Guzman scored the lone Dodger run in the second. He hit a looper that

dropped in front of second baseman McBeth. McBeth fielded the ball and

threw quickly to first as he was stumbling to his knees, but Guzman beat

the throw.

After advancing to second and third on a passed ball and wild pitch,

respectively, and a walk to second baseman Cory Ames, Guzman scored on

Nick Oliver’s fielder’s choice grounder to short.

The Dodgers didn’t advance a runner past first after the second

inning.

“(The A’s) kept us off balance,” Pederson said. “We didn’t do a good

job with two-strike hitting and they did. They had (a bunch) of called

third strikes and you just can’t do that against their pitchers. You

gotta credit their pitchers.”

The Dodgers struck out seven times looking, 16 overall.

Ian Abernathy and Long weren’t too shabby on the mound either.

Abernathy started the game and pitched three innings, allowing one run

(unearned) on one hit while striking out four and walking two.

Dodger defense was strong throughout, with right fielder Danny O’Neil

battling the sun to catch a line drive in the second and Brandon Grimmett

diving head first near the A’s first-base dugout to catch a pop foul in

the third inning.

“What more can you have?” Pederson said. “No one wins them all, but I

couldn’t be more proud of a group of kids.”

Monday’s loss isn’t the end of the baseball season just yet for

Pederson and four Dodgers.

Pederson and Mike Falbo are coaches for Manager Bill Redding’s CMNLL

All-Star team. Guzman, Grimmett, Bennett and Long are the Dodger

representatives on the team, which opens July 6 against Westminster.