Season ends with surprise, no sour taste

For the first time in recent memory, the Laguna Beach Little League

Junior All Star team won a game at the District 55 All Star

Tournament.

Not only did they win that opener against Saddleback, 5-1, but

they did it in convincing fashion too.

However, their ride in the tournament came to a halt Monday as

Northwood ran away with a 23-6, mercy-rule victory at Windrow Park in

Irvine.

That loss came on the heels of a 21-9 setback Saturday to host

South Irvine.

A recap look at Laguna Beach’s tournament performances:

Laguna 5, Saddleback 1

In the opener of the Junior Division tournament, manager Mark

Christy’s squad received a dominant pitching performance from Raphael

Vickers, along with timely hitting and solid fielding to dispose of

Saddleback.

Vickers took over in the second inning and pitched six shutout

innings. He gave up four hits and a walk and struck out 12 batters.

Laguna trailed, 1-0, in the first inning when Saddleback scored on

a two-out bloop to right.

Laguna tied the score in the fourth when designated runner Sean

Pigden scored from third on a fly ball by Alex Shusko.

Pigden had stolen second, and stole third after Gabe Stansbury

singled for the first Laguna hit.

Stansbury started the decisive, sixth-inning, three-run rally for

Laguna Beach by getting his second single on a full-count pitch.

Logan Schoembs followed with a flair to left field before Ryan Raffo

placed a 2-2 pitch into shallow right-center field, which scored

Stansbury.

Pigden promptly found the hole between first and second for a

single that scored two.

Shusko finished the Laguna Beach scoring in the seventh when his

booming two-out double to left-center field plated Vickers, who had

singled.

So. Irvine 21, Laguna 9

Laguna Beach was brought back to reality by a formidable South

Irvine squad.

A bad-hop triple in the first inning propelled South Irvine, and

by the time top-half of the frame was over, the host team was up,

6-0.

Laguna seemed unfazed, and came right back in the bottom of the

inning to score four on a two-out rally.

Casey Miller started the comeback with an infield hit. Two outs

later, Stansbury and Schoembs delivered back-to-back RBI doubles and

Shusko completed the four-run rally with a two-run triple to right,

then scored on an overthrow to third on the play.

South Irvine retaliated immediately, and put the game away by

scoring 10 runs in its second at-bat.

After Kyle Snyder, who had singled, showed aggressive base running

when he stole home in the second inning to make it a 16-5 game, South Irvine tacked on two more runs in the third and scored their final

three in the fourth.

But Laguna still didn’t give up.

Snyder also started a fifth-inning rally with a walk. Miller also

walked and Stansbury hit a double to left field to score both

runners.

Schoembs followed with a single and Shusko scored Stansbury and

pinch runner Pigden with an infield hit followed by an overthrow to

close the gap to 21-9.

The loss sent the locals into an elimination game against

Northwood.

Northwood 23, Laguna 6

Running out of able arms to take the mound, the season came to a

close for the Juniors All Stars.

Northwood’s top six batters reached the plate six times in the

five innings played.

But the second tournament loss wasn’t lost on the squad, Christy

noted.

“When you lose by double digits, and have a great time, then you

know you have a beautiful group of kids,” the manager said. “This

team exceeded everyone’s expectations, so the season should be viewed

as a success.”

For the tournament, the top six batters in the Laguna line up hit

nearly .400 and got on base nearly 50% of the time.

Stansbury was hot from the plate. He finished with a .667 batting

average, an .800 on-base percentage, and had three RBIs.

Shusko was equally as impressive, with a .571 batting average and

a .500 on-base percentage, and he led the team with six RBI.

The Laguna Beach Junior All-Star team was composed of Snyder,

Miller, Raffo, Pigden, Vickers, Stansbury, Schoembs, Paul Salomon,

Jackson “J Rod” Christy, Brendan Ferguson and Blake Hofmeister.

Mark Christy took time to praise his three 14-year-old players --

Snyder, Stansbuy and Shusko -- who will advance to the high school

ranks next year.

“These three exhibited tremendous baseball skills and were great

leaders on and off the field,” Christy said.