Rockies relish the journey

HUNTINGTON BEACH ? The whole Costa Mesa National Little League Minor B Division Rockies team dog-piled on Manager Mark Roginson.

After Roginson struggled to get up, a couple of grinning players dumped a bucket full of ice on him.

Not the way teams usually celebrate losing, 17-7, to the Seaview A’s on Saturday in the District 62 Tournament of Champions quarterfinals. But for the Rockies, it was the thrill of getting there that was being celebrated.

The Rockies won three consecutive must-win games to capture the Costa Mesa National Little League Minor B crown, then took a 10-5 win over Fountain Valley in their first-round TOC game.

“It’s been a real roller coaster for us emotionally,” Roginson said. “The toughest thing for me is that I’m going to miss those kids. To see them buck up like that and everything they learned, and now it’s over. It doesn’t seem right.”

The Rockies’ offense was never in question, even in Saturday’s loss. Alex Chairez’s first-inning infield single scored Nani Plews, and Frankie Millan had an RBI groundout later in the inning to score Cristian Salazar.

Chairez said he’d remember plenty about this season.

“Hitting the ball, and working as a team and winning the championship of Costa Mesa,” Chairez said. “We beat the Dodgers twice, and they only had to beat us once to win the championship. But we won.”

Up, 2-0, after a half-inning against Seaview, the Rockies proceeded to give up five runs in the bottom of the inning. Most of the problem stemmed from walks, wild pitches and passed balls.

The A’s added two more in the second before Costa Mesa started to come back. Salazar’s third-inning single scored Plews, then Salazar scored on a couple of poor Seaview throws at the end of the play. The runs closed the gap to 7-4.

“It was my first time in TOC,” Salazar said. “It feels good. You’re like a professional, because they call your name out. It was fun, but we had to try hard to get this far.”

The Rockies rally gave Roginson some hope because he knew the Rockies could hit the ball.

That hope was relatively short-lived, however, when Seaview scored three more runs in the third to go up, 10-4. All three runs scored on passed balls.

“We just didn’t play very well today,” Roginson said. “We’ve been a great-hitting team pretty much all year long. We hit it today, too. We just hit it in the wrong spots or hit it to someone. It was just one of those days.”

The Rockies did have another rally in them in the third. Zack Cosner, celebrating his birthday, scored on an errant pickoff throw to third by the pitcher, and Bobby Muniz drew a bases-loaded walk to force in Brandon Long.

Plews was hit by a pitch, forcing in another run and narrowing the deficit to 10-7.

But the A’s, as they had done all day, answered back with a run in fourth. They then ultimately ended the game in the fifth, scoring six more times on a single, two errors and a wild pitch.

Chairez and Salazar both had two hits for the Rockies, and Plews scored two runs. Brad Chandler had an infield single.

Also contributing to the Rockies were Hunter Roginson, Gabriel Husain-Kennan, Jeremy Beltz and Nathan Adkins.