Battle of Mesa goes to Giants

Rick Devereux

The combination of solid pitching and key hitting early provided the

edge for the Costa Mesa National Little League Minor B Giants, who

defeated the Costa Mesa American Yankees, 8-2, in the quarterfinals

of the District 62 Tournament of Champions Saturday at the Robinwood

Little League fields.

The Giants will play the Huntington Valley Angels Monday at 5 p.m.

at Robinwood in the semifinals.

The Giants’ Jesse Paz threw 44 pitches through three no-hit

innings. He got a break in the second inning when the Yankees’

Spencer Lindsay hit a ground ball to first baseman Frank DiPretro.

DiPretro rushed forward to gobble up the grounder and tried to tag

Lindsay out. Lindsay avoided the tag and was safe at first.

After some deliberation between the umpires, Lindsay was called

out for running out of the base path. Paz, who struck out six and

only walked two, gave the Giants the confidence to take chances

offensively.

“We knew he had a no-hitter going through three innings,” Giants

Manager Randy Wood said. “We knew he was only good for three. He

pitched three innings the other day and we didn’t want to push him.”

Aaron Wood delivered a stand-up double down the third-base line in

the bottom of the first for the Giants and scored on Chad Fackler’s

single up the middle.

Chase Whittaker’s single in the second knocked in Sam Miller and

Kyle Barnett to give the Giants a 3-0 cushion.

Fackler added to the lead in the third inning when he smacked a

single to center that sored Matt Jarmacz and Paz to give the Giants a

commanding 5-0 lead.

Fackler, who played with the National League Cubs during the

regular season and was brought up to fill a hole from a departing

Giants player, finished with four RBIs and was the key to the game

according to Randy Wood.

“Chad came up at key times and came through for us by getting

RBIs,” he said. “He really helped us out.”

But the Yankees battled back in the fourth and fifth innings.

Kevin Salyer hit an RBI single in the fourth but was thrown out

trying to advance to third on a single by Adrian Galvin. The

aggressive philosophy spilled over from the base paths to batter’s

box for the Yankees.

They were swinging at pitches outside the strike zone resulting in

11 strikeouts.

“We didn’t bring our bats,” Yankees Manager John Salyer said of

the five-hit performance. “We swung at a lot of bad pitches.”

The Yankees’ River Kapeller knocked in Mike Martinez in the fifth

to make it 5-2, but the Giants opportunistic offense jumped to life

again in the bottom half of the inning.

Paz hit a double over the left fielder’s head that scored Jarmacz,

Aaron Wood scored on a passed ball and Paz scored on Fackler’s

groundout to first. The inning was kept alive when the Yankees

dropped dropped two infield pops.

“Our defense had some mental lapses,” Salyer said. “I told our

team coming into the tournament that the number was three: three

errors or less and you can win games. I think that was a big

difference, but, then again, our bats weren’t swinging.”

Wood struck out the side in the sixth to end the game.

“We’ve been telling these kids all year, ‘We’re the Bad News

Bears,’ ” Randy Wood said. “From Day 1 to where we are today, we’ve

come a long way. It’s pretty cool.”

Wood said the 13 hits by the Giants and overall discipline at the

plate was evidence of the team’s growth.

“What makes me pretty happy is, we had six strikeouts,” he said.

“That’s not bad in this league. We’re pretty happy with that. And if

the kids hit the ball, you’re going to win, especially in Minor B.”