Blair baffles Newport

Bryce Alderton

The Newport Beach American Little League Major All-Stars cannot say

they didn’t have their chances.

The Newport 11- and 12-year-olds got the leadoff man on in four of

the six innings, but couldn’t come up with a key hit with runners on

base and dropped a District 55 All-Star tournament opener to Rancho

Santa Margarita, 5-0, Saturday at Curtis Park.

Much of Newport’s offensive ineptness could be attributed to the

sterling performance on the mound by RSM’s Scott Blair, a lanky

12-year-old who fanned eight and allowed only one hit in going the

entire six innings.

“The name of the game is when you call a pitch and a location and

a 12-year-old can execute,” RSM Manager Mark Strickland said. “Scott

did an outstanding job mixing his pitches.”

Newport Manager Tim Scott would agree with Strickland’s assessment

of Blair, who walked five but managed to get out of every trouble

spot.

“[Blair] kept us off pace with curveballs and had an exceptional

high fastball, which we enjoyed swinging at,” Scott said. “Normally

in our league we don’t encounter a lot of curves.

“I told them to protect the plate, have patience and make contact

to hit the ball hard, but [Blair] had us fooled. We had a couple of

shots that went directly to fielders.”

Newport leadoff hitter John Doering waited patiently and connected

on a high curveball for Newport’s only hit, a single in the fifth

inning with Blair six outs away from a no-hitter. Sean Tokuyama had

walked to leadoff the inning. Doering and Tokuyama took second and

third, respectively on a wild pitch, but Blair caught a pop fly near

the mound and struck out the final batter looking to quell the rally

attempt.

Walks to Mitch Sands and Nick Freeman to begin the fourth inning

gave Newport another scoring chance. But a strikeout and an out on a

fielder’s choice preceded Matt Morris’ at-bat. In the second inning,

Morris roped a pitch straight to the right fielder for an out. Again

in the fourth, Morris sent a high shot into right field, but the ball

fell into the fielder’s glove mere feet in front of the warning

track.

“From the bench it looked like it could carry,” Scott said. “We

had our opportunities where a hit here or there could have changed

the complex of the game.”

RSM took advantage of their chances, plating two runs each in the

second and fourth innings while adding another in the third.

Both runs in the second were unearned. Devon Baughman’s grounder

went right under an infielder’s legs to score Grant Anderson while

Clay Messner tallied another RBI after a pickle down the third-base

line. The third baseman fielded the soft grounder and fired to the

catcher to trap the runner. Two more throws followed, but a fielder

dropped the final toss as the Baughman ran by to touch the plate.

In the fourth, Chris Lombardo reached base on an error to open the

inning and later scored on a sharp single to left by Jake Marshall,

one of RSM’s eight hits.

Errors wasted an otherwise “outstanding performance” by Sands,

Newport’s starting pitcher. Sands went four innings, striking out

three, while allowing seven hits. He didn’t walk a batter.

“Mitch started sharply, had good control of his pitches and was

ahead in the count several times,” Scott said. “A lack of effort on

two plays hurt us.”

Morris came on for two innings of scoreless relief, allowing only

one hit while striking out one, employing an effective knuckleball.

“Matt came in with a great relief effort with a good fastball and

an effective offspeed pitch,” Scott said.

Merrett Scott and Ryan Spitzer both reached base on fielders’

choices while Evan McNerney led off the third with a walk. Timmy

Winning, Michael Katz, Jerry Kazmierczak and Michael Borchard all saw

action Saturday.

The loss drops Newport into the loser’s bracket with a game

Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the same site.

Scott hopes his team increases its intensity by then.

“We need to step up and refocus,” Scott said. “We have been

fundamentally sound in practice, so the errors [Saturday] were not

typical.”