Bronco Bs hit bump in road

DANA POINT ? The Newport Harbor Baseball Association Bronco B All-Stars came into Tuesday’s game against St. Hedwig fully expecting a win.

After all, the team had started the Dana Point Summer Classic with a perfect 2-0 record, while St. Hedwig had gotten routed by a tally of 16-3 in its first game.

“We were kind of feeling too good about ourselves,” said Newport Harbor Manager Fred Cornwell. “I think the great baseball gods in the sky brought us down to earth.”

Whether or not it was divine intervention, the 14-4 loss to St. Hedwig at Del Obispo Park likely didn’t cost the team much. While Dana Point and Placentia still have a final pool play game tonight, Newport Harbor should finish in the top two of a four-team pool and advance to Saturday’s championship game.

Newport Harbor had scored 23 runs in its first two games and it looked to be more of the same early against St. Hedwig. Brice Manning ? who reached base all three times up and scored twice ? led off the game by reaching on an error. He went to third base on a wild pitch and came home on a subsequent bad throw to third, giving his team an early 1-0 lead.

Riley Robinson followed with a single to left, and was eventually batted home on Christian Comet’s RBI groundout to stake Newport Harbor to an early 2-0 lead.

“Since we got the first two runs of the game, we thought we had this game,” said Comet, who added an RBI double in the fourth inning. “Our pitching’s pretty good, but I think our hitting and fielding need a little work, and especially our motivation.”

St. Hedwig struck back in a hurry in the bottom of the first inning, scoring five times. Four batters were walked and all of them scored.

St. Hedwig added another run in the second inning on another walk that came around to score, padding its lead to 6-3.

Comet’s RBI double scored Zach Wade in the fourth inning, but Newport Harbor had the bases loaded with one out and failed to score again.

St. Hedwig came back for two more runs in the bottom of the inning. Both runs scored on Newport Harbor wild pitches.

“In the beginning, we weren’t hungry for the game,” Wade said. “We didn’t want the game as bad as they did. We have to start working together more, like we did in the games that got us here.”

Manning scored again in the fifth on Robinson’s RBI single to center, cutting the deficit to 8-4. But three more St. Hedwig walks, six hits and a couple of Newport Harbor throwing errors plated six runs, ending the game due to the mercy rule.

“Everything went wrong for us tonight, and everything went right for them,” Cornwell said. “But that’s baseball. If we come out to the championship [game] on Saturday and win it, we’ll forget about this game.”

Rod Schmidt reached base twice for Newport Harbor. Jason Wooding had a fourth-inning single and Zach Cornwell played a solid first base. Also contributing were shortstop Addison MacLaren and relief pitcher Brennan Callahan.

As far as regrouping, relief pitcher/left fielder Blake Pender said it all comes down to practice before Saturday’s game, scheduled for 2:45 p.m.

“We have to practice and get our team back together,” Pender said. “If we don’t practice, we could do the same thing on Saturday.”

dpt.29-ll-bronco-b-2-BPhotoInfo801SEVJJ20060629j1lkwrncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Blake Pender of Newport Harbor delivers a pitch during Tuesday’s game against St. Hedwig at Del Obispo Park.dpt.29-ll-bronco-b-1-BPhotoInfo801SEVK520060629j1lkvzncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Jason Wooding of the Newport Harbor Baseball Assn. Bronco B All-Stars makes the tag on St. Hedwig’s Chris Ameling at third base during Tuesday’s game at Del Obispo Park in Dana Point.