Pony team caps undefeated season

CORONA DEL MAR ? Teams do not win 26 games in a row by focusing on the big picture.

So, in the aftermath of his team’s 8-7 come-from-behind, walk-off victory in the Newport-Mesa Pony Tournament championship game Sunday at Eastbluff Elementary, Newport Harbor Baseball Assn. Manager Chris Holt said his team’s unbeaten season had not yet sunk in with his New York Hardware players.

“I think half the team is already in the water surfing,” Hone said with a smile several minutes after his 13- and 14-year-old players had left the field for the final time as teammates.

“I told the guys they probably wouldn’t realize how special this was until they were in their 40s like us [coaches and some parents]. “I think there may come a day when they’re coaching their own teams and they’ll talk to their kids about ‘When my Pony team went undefeated, we had to battle through some tough games, so don’t ever give up.’ ”

In rallying to overcome a strong performance by the Costa Mesa Dodgers on Sunday, it was clear that perseverence is a lesson New York Hardware ? NHBA Pony teams were named for sponsors this season ? showed it had learned all too well.

The designated hosts, who entered the game seeking to complete their perfect season, led, 3-0, after one inning.

But the Dodgers, who had finished fifth in the regular-season standings and had won four straight to battle out of the loser’s bracket, took the lead with four runs in the second inning and eventually upped the lead to 7-3.

Manager Clint Brown’s Dodgers utilized crafty pitching by left-hander Derek Amendola, and nine combined hits in the second, third and fourth innings, to put the No. 1 seed’s perfect record in peril.

New York Hardware scored two in the fifth, but left the bases loaded in a scoreless sixth, as Amendola posted his 10th strikeout for the second out and center fielder Coleman Brown charged in to make a tumbling catch of a sinking fly ball to end the threat.

But after Jack Grace threw his third scoreless relief inning ? retiring the final eight he faced, including three strikeouts ? New York Hardware, which scored in the sixth inning to claim a 1-0 win over Piper Jaffray in Friday’s winner’s bracket semifinal, entered the seventh intent on erasing the deficit.

“I was really, really nervous,” said Grace, who began the rally with a one-out single, his third hit of the game. “I knew if we lost, there would be another championship game on Tuesday [in the double-elimination format]. But I didn’t want it to go to Tuesday.”

Grace stole second and Jason Harris walked to put the go-ahead run on base. With two of his best athletes on the bases, Hone put on a double steal on the second pitch to the next batter.

Grace’s head-first slide easily beat the throw from the catcher to third, and the ball went into left field, allowing Grace to score, as Harris remained at second.

Harris went to third on a groundout to the second baseman, and a 1-2 pitch to the next hitter bounced in front of the plate and skipped off the catcher to the backstop, allowing Harris to slide in with the game-winning run.

“It makes perfect sense that the 26th game was the toughest,” Hone said. “Just like the 25th was the toughest to that point in our season. I was very confident we would score in that last inning, but we got a break to win the game. There were many times this season when we had balls bounce our way. It was almost like the stars aligned for us this season.”

Still, an unbeaten season was hardly predicted.

“People have been asking me when was the last time a team went undefeated and no one can remember it every happening around here,” Hone said. “In fact, it’s something I’ve never even heard of. When we were 4-0, we just thought about getting to 5-0. When we were 10-0, us coaches thought we needed to lose one, so the kids knew what it felt like.”

But the players ? Grace, Harris, Jacob McCann, Dan Hurley, Nelson Simons, Erik Heimstaedt, Matt Bancroft, Conner LoMenzo, Scott Felder and Pepper Massingill, obviously had other ideas.

“We wanted to go undefeated,” said Harris, who was two for three with two RBIs.

Grace went three for four with three runs, four stolen bases and one RBI. He was also the winning pitcher.

Heimstaedt drove in two runs with a first-inning double, Massingill doubled and scored in the fifth, while Hurley and LoMenzo added singles for New York Hardware.

George DeLaTorre launched a two-run homer in the fourth, his first of the season, to finalize the Dodgers’ scoring.

Ryan Cherney led off the Dodgers’ second inning with a double, advanced on a balk and scored on Daniel Carter’s single to center. After Coleman Brown singled, and stole second, a line single by Amendola plated another run and put runners at the corners. Amendola then stole second and, two outs later, was the second of two runners to score when a fly ball was misplayed for an error.

Carter drove in Brian Waldron, who had doubled, for the Dodgers’ run in the third.

Amendola’s pitching garnered praise from both managers.

“He’s a real competitor who worked harder than anyone on our team this season,” Clint Brown said. “He returned from a school trip to Washington, D.C. late Friday night and pitched two innings [in Saturday’s 11-4 semifinal win over Piper Jaffray]. This was his game and he told me before it started ‘Don’t you even think about taking me out.’ ”

Said Hone: “[Amendola] pitched a great game. He had us fooled all day.”

The Dodgers also received contributions from Nico Ruan, Eric Ronquillo, Ryan Barnett, Javier Munoz and Tommy Stephens.

Hone also wished to acknowledge his coaches, Steve Harris, Tony LoMenzo, Charlie Massingill and Jackson Massingill.

“To be honest, [Sunday’s win] is very bitter-sweet,” Hone said, “because I’m going to miss coaching this great group of kids. It has been an unbelievable season and, if I stop to think about it, it’s beyond words.”