Marlins cool off Newport Beach Halos

Bryce Alderton

From the first pitch, players in the Lake Forest Little League Majors

dugout rooted on their teammates as they stepped into the batters box

to face Newport Beach pitcher Jamie Heinecke.

The persistent shouts of encouragement caused some contention in

the Newport dugout early on and the noise lessened, but only for so

long.

The Lake Forest Marlins, league champions, got a splendid

performance from pitcher Jack Poeppel and eliminated the Newport

Beach Little League Angels from the District 55 Tournament of

Champions, 3-0, in a third-round contest at the Youth Sports Park

Thursday.

Lake Forest advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Poeppel, the team’s No. 2 pitcher, struck out five, walked none

and allowed six hits in a 68-pitch performance.

The right-handed Heinecke, after allowing three runs through the

first two innings, settled down to fan four and scatter six hits. He

did not walk a batter in a 70-pitch, complete-game effort.

“[The Marlins] put some hits together for their runs, but,

unfortunately, our [hits] were not all together,” said Newport

Manager Bart Thomsen, who approached the plate umpire before Marlins’

No. 2 hitter, Corie Ducote, stepped into the batter’s box in the

bottom of the first.

Thomsen said the encouraging shouts coming from the Marlins’

dugout were distracting to Heinecke.

“I’m all for cheering and pumping up your team, but the constant

chanting had to stop,” Thomsen said.

The cheers soon waned in volume but the Marlins (15-3) gave their fans plenty to yell about in the first two innings.

The right-handed Heinecke retired the leadoff hitter in the first,

but Ducote reached on an error and advanced to third on consecutive

singles from Matt Chapman and Poeppel. Spencer Core brought in Ducote

on an RBI groundout.

In the second, leadoff hitter Robert Wallace belted a one-out,

two-run double that one-hopped the right-field fence to plate the

final runs of the game and give Poeppel, who broke the right index

finger in his pitching hand and missed three regular-season games,

all the support he would need.

“This is [Poeppel’s] first year as a pitcher and he has just been

outstanding,” Marlins Manager Jim Chapman said.

The Angels (11-12), winners of five of their last six postseason

games dating to the league tournament, made Poeppel work for the win.

The Angels, who lost to the Reds in the league title game, had at

least one runner on base in five of six innings, including the first

two batters in the sixth.

Nick Flamson and cleanup hitter Armani Ferrante each singled to

open the sixth, bringing the potential tying run to the plate.

But Poeppel induced a pop-up that first baseman Ducote caught mere

feet from the Angels dugout on the first-base side.

“That changed the momentum,” Jim Chapman said.

A strikeout and groundout sealed the Angels’ fate.

Flamson and leadoff hitter Blake Thomsen each went 2 for 3 with a

double while Ferrante and Hunter Meece each singled for the Angels.

Thomsen led off the game with a single and reached second on a

fielder’s choice, but was stranded when Poeppel tallied a strikeout

and induced a groundout.

The Marlins also had a runner reach at least second base in five

innings against Heinecke, who retired seven straight and nine of the

final 10 batters he faced. Matt Chapman’s one-out single in the fifth

was the first Marlins’ hit since Wallace’s double in the second.

Heinecke, throwing to catcher Gianni Ferrante, got help from his

defense.

Right fielder Mikey Pawelldived to rob Nick Garcia of a hit in the

fourth and J.D. Dawn, playing third base, saved a potential run when

he backhanded a sharply-hit grounder by Matt Chapman and threw to

first to end the second.

The Angels reached the third-round with a 4-3 victory over a

Tijeras Creek squad on Sunday. Pawell scored the winning run.

Armani Ferrante doubled in two runs while Dawn went 3 for 4 and

Mike Moorehead added a hit and a walk.

Thomsen went 2 for 3 and to finish 4 for 6 in two TOC games. Meece

went 2 for 2 in the two games.

David Weiland, Ryan Grable and Emil Peterson also contributed to

the Angels’ run.

“The kids battled and played well,” Thomsen said.

With the Reds’ 6-4 loss to the Laguna Hills Astros Thursday, the

Mariners are the lone Newport Beach representative still alive in the

TOC.

The Mariners take on a team from Saddleback at 1 p.m. Saturday at

the Youth Sports Park.