A summer thriller

Rick Devereux

The major drawback of a tightly contested baseball game where every

player gives an all-out effort is that one of the two teams loses.

Unfortunately for the Newport Beach National Little League Major

All-Stars, they were on the short end of a 2-1 game against Tijeras

Creek Tuesday night at the Mission Viejo Youth Athletic Park in the

opening round of the District 55 double-elimination tournament.

“That was a tough game to lose,” Newport Beach Manager Jeff Bloom

said. “That was a very well-played Little League game.”

Newport Beach took an early lead in the first inning when Nick

Flamson hit a pop fly to right field that was dropped and allowed

Michael Bloom to score all the way from second base.

Tijeras Creek applied pressure in the bottom of the first with

Brian Glynn on third with one out, but a head’s up defensive play by

first baseman Brian Hurst kept the home team off the scoreboard and

ended the inning.

A Tijeras Creek batter hit a chopper back to the Bloom, the

pitcher, who checked Glynn at third and threw out the batter running

for first. Glynn darted for home on the throw, but Hurst made a quick

catch and throw to nab Glynn at home for a 1-3-2 double play.

Bloom was solid on the mound for Newport. He scattered five hits

over six innings with six strikeouts and zero walks.

“He pitched a great game,” the elder Bloom said. “We played some

good defense behind him. Hurst made a great play. He’s absolutely one

of the best fielders in the league. He doesn’t make that play in the

first, then [Tijeras Creek takes the momentum].”

Michael Zangl, the Tijeras Creek pitcher, countered Bloom with his

performance on the mound. Zangl allowed four hits with eight

strikeouts over six innings. But Zangl, too, benefited from the

defense behind him.

In the third inning, with two outs and a runner on first, Tijeras

Creek catcher Kyle Sonksen pretended to lose the pitch behind him.

When the Newport runner tried to take second, Sonksen easily threw

him out to end the inning.

Zangl led off the third with a double to the right-field fence,

but was eventually caught in a pickle on Robby Gaworski’s hit to

second. Drew Goldenberg plated Gaworski with a double to left-center,

but a nice leaping grab by Hurst, who had switched over to shortstop,

ended the threat and kept the game nodded at 1-1.

In the sixth and final inning, Zangl again received quality

defense. Blake Thomsen smacked what looked like a sure single to

start the inning for Newport, but second baseman Chris Cordova made a

nice diving catch to stop the ground ball and made a big throw from

his knees to rob Thomsen and Newport Beach. Newport put runners on

first and second, but Zangl induced a ground out and struck out the

final batter to get out of the jam.

For the winning run, Drew Goldenberg hit a lead-off single and

advanced to second on a single by Cordova. Gilbert Viera hit a

dribbler up the first-base line. The Newport first baseman fielded

the ball, stepped on first for an out and tried to get a double play

and send the game into extra innings. But his throw to second was low

and squirted past the shortstop and into left field, allowing

Goldenberg to score the game-winner.

“This was a tough, tough, tough way to lose,” the elder Bloom

said. “That was about as good a little league game as you’re going to

see.”

Newport plays again on Saturday at noon.