Giants’ season comes to a halt

Chris Yemma

Defense has presented a paradox all season to Costa Mesa National

Little League Giants Manager Keith Holmes.

He has stressed fielding the most, yet he has known all along that

fielding is his Majors division team’s biggest weakness.

“Defense is our Achilles heel,” he said.

A prime example was provided Thursday, as the Giants committed 17

errors en route to a 12-1 loss to the Fountain Valley Athletics in

the first round of the District 62 Tournament of Champions at Mile

Square Park.

“My main worry has been defense,” said Holmes, whose team finished

the season 9-7. “We got down and we got mentally out of it.”

The Giants, the No. 2 team from the Costa Mesa National Little

League, were led all season by pitching ace Victor Trujillo. But it

was only recently that Holmes transformed him from a closer to a

starter.

In just his first loss as a starter, Trujillo came out strong,

allowing two hits and two unearned runs in the first three innings

before the defense started unraveling. He went five innings before

Nico Ruan struck out two in the sixth.

The A’s, Fountain Valley Little League’s No. 1 team, did the most

damage in the fourth and fifth innings, totaling eight runs, to pull

away.

“I had to come to the mound a couple of times [to calm Trujillo],”

Holmes said. “All the errors made it hard get back into it.”

The Giants’ offense was also limited, as the pitching trio of

Tyler Clouse, Tyler McGee and Turner Clouse combined to allow just

one hit and one unearned run for the A’s.

McGee tossed two innings of no-hit shutout ball, while starter

Tyler Clouse struck out eight in three innings.

The A’s improved to 17-1, with the one loss coming by a 1-0

margin.

“This is a very good returning team from last year,” A’s Manager

Dave Clouse said. “It’s a very good defensive team.”

The Giants scored their lone run in the first inning, as leadoff

batter Daniel Degree reached second on a dropped fly ball. Raymond

Holmes sacrificed Degree to third and Sean Lagotic plated him with a

blooper to right-center field.

Trujillo and Conner Graham both reached base on errors to lead off

the bottom of the sixth inning.

But three straight outs quickly followed and the A’s advanced to

the quarterfinals against Ocean View’s No. 1 team at Noon Saturday.

“Their errors definitely helped us out a lot, but we also had some

big hits,” Clouse said. “At this level, being the No. 1 or No. 2

team, errors don’t help at all.”

Lagotic accounted for the Giants’ lone hit and drove in the lone

run, while other contributors included Kyle Orton, Brodie Pearce,

Nick Schirmer, Andres Hernandez, Riley Schoneman and Juan Valdez.

Tyler Clouse went 2 for 5 with two doubles, two runs scored and an

RBI to lead the A’s, while Derek Gioia was 2 for 5.

Despite the final game, Holmes was pleased with the year.

“It was a pretty successful season,” he said.