Balance boosts Dodgers in 5-3 win

Bryce Alderton

The Costa Mesa National Little League Dodgers limped into their

District 62 Tournament of Champions first-round game Thursday against

the Ocean View Yankees an ankle and a foot short of full strength.

The Majors division champions were missing their starting third

baseman and No. 2 pitcher, but it was a mere formality.

Teammates shouldered the added responsibility and the Dodgers

gritted out a 5-3, come-from-behind victory at Huntington Valley,

keyed by a two-run sixth inning surge.

The Dodgers will face the Huntington Valley Braves in a

quarterfinal at noon Saturday at the same site.

“This team is so unpredictable, but in a good way,” Dodgers’

Manager Kirk Stone said. “It’s always someone different.”

The bottom of the order sparked Costa Mesa’s sixth-inning scoring.

Leadoff hitter Matt Carlyle, who finished 3 for 4 with a run scored,

laced a one-out double inches inside the third-base bag to plate Alex

Krohnfeldt and Jake Knapp, who had walked and reached on an error,

respectively.

Derek Andrews, hitting in the eighth spot in the lineup, reached

base on an error to open the inning and Krohnfeldt followed with her

third walk in three at-bats.

The Dodgers (14-3), winners of nine straight, rebounded from 1-0

and 3-2 deficits to the Yankees (16-6), who finished second in their

league during the regular season.

Costa Mesa scored twice in the top of the third to take a 2-1 lead

on A.J. Roth’s two-run home run that cleared the scoreboard in

right-center field.

Ocean View responded with two runs in its half of the third, via a

wild pitch and RBI single.

Roth, who stands close to 6 feet and towered over every player on

the field, added his third RBI of the game on a sharply-hit, one-out

double up the middle in the fifth, plating Carlyle.

Carlyle and Roth each tossed three innings, limiting the Yankees

to four hits. Carlyle started, allowing four hits and three runs,

while striking out five and walking none. He also added strong

defense at third, diving to his left to spear a grounder hit by Tyler

Pagter and threw out the runner.

Roth overpowered Yankee batters in his three innings, displaying

sparkling command of both the fastball and curveball to fan seven of

the nine hitters he faced. He struck out the side in the fourth on

nine pitches and pounced on a high chopper, like a cat reaching to

grab a tennis ball, off the bat of Josh Berry for the final putout in

the fifth inning.

“[Roth] has been our most constant player the entire year,” said

Stone, who estimated Roth is hitting .970 this season.

Roth’s tall, muscular stature rattled the nerves of Yankees, Ocean

View Coach Scott Pagter said.

“To see that kid throwing hard, it would make me nervous to swing

the bat,” Scott Pagter said. “But how many times do you get to face a

kid of that caliber?”

Roth and Carlyle were two of the Dodgers’ three main pitchers

throughout the year. The third, Kevin Carvajal, who tossed a

no-hitter earlier this season, rolled his ankle playing soccer and is

questionable for Saturday. Scott Wagner, the team’s starting third

baseman, broke his foot playing football Wednesday, forcing Stone to

scramble to fill out a roster that requires 12 players for the

tournament.

Stone phoned Jordan Young Wednesday night, informing him he would

be a Dodger for the first time this season. Young reached on a

fielder’s choice in the sixth inning.

Krohnfeldt started at third while Kannon Stone, who scored on

Roth’s home run, and catcher Brody Henshied, added to a staunch

defense that committed only one error.

Stone fielded Pagter’s grounder in the third and fired home to

Henshied, who applied the tag on a sliding runner.

The defense, not the offense, has carried the Dodgers, Kirk Stone

said.

“In five games at the end of the season when we went, 5-0, we

outscored opponents, 38-2,” Kirk Stone said. “We weren’t striking

everyone out. You look at the error column and the team that commits

the least amount of errors wins 90 percent of the time.”

The Yankees committed two errors.

Conner Gilligan added an infield single in the Dodgers’ six-hit

attack.