Imperfect ending for Newport

LAGUNA NIGUEL ? Perfection. Just not the way the Newport Beach American Little League 11-year-old All-Stars had wanted it.

In a very rare occurrence Saturday afternoon, Aliso Viejo’s Austin Allen tossed a perfect game with nine strikeouts against Newport Beach, mixing a live fastball with a wicked curve to keep batters off base in the District 55 All-Star Tournament opener at Chapparosa Park.

Allen and his teammates amassed 15 hits in a 9-0 victory.

Newport Beach American is still alive in the double-elimination tournament. It plays again at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday against the Saddleback-Rancho Niguel loser.

Despite what would appear to be a devastating loss, Newport Beach American Manager Bill Worden didn’t appear concerned.

“It’s a little league game,” Worden said after the one-hour, 36-minute affair. “I’m not going to lose my mind over something like this and neither should the kids. We’re going to give them the weekend off and come back on Wednesday and see what we have.”

Aliso Viejo gave Allen all the offensive support he would need before he took the hill, scoring in its initial at-bat. Allen slapped a one-out single to center, followed by Alec Sommer’s bloop single to right.

Ross Parsons then hit a grounder to the shortstop, who bobbled the ball and threw wildly into right field trying to force out Sommer at second.

Allen never broke stride in coming around to score.

Newport Beach pitcher Tyler McPhillips then induced a pop-up and fanned the next hitter to end the inning.

Newport Beach had only two hard-hit balls all game in the eyes of Worden, whose son, Casey, had a long, hot afternoon behind the plate. Bill Worden said he did see some bright spots.

“We made some good plays, like them having runners at first and third and us getting the runner at home on the double steal,” the elder Worden said. “You certainly have to appreciate their pitcher’s effort, however. It’s not often you see an 11-year-old kid not give up a walk or throw a complete game.”

In the second inning, Aliso Viejo threatened as Jarret Belles walked with one gone, moved to second on a sacrifice and reached third on Jackson Rees’ infield single.

But the threat was just that as Worden fired down to second to try and throw out Rees. The throw was intercepted by Nick Roco, however, and thrown back to Worden, who easily had Belles cut down at the plate to end the inning, to the delight of a throng of Newport Beach supporters.

Aliso Viejo would add two runs in the third and an Allen solo homer in the fourth to extend the lead to 4-0.

In the fifth, the Newport Beach defense again snuffed out a scoring threat.

Tyler Hartzenbuhler opened the frame with a single to right. Despite having three American fielders around the ball, Hartzenbuhler tried to stretch the hit into a double, but the throw from the outfield was perfect to Roco, who put the tag on the runner.

Despite another error later in the inning, Newport Beach was able to stay in the game and prevent further damage.

Aliso Viejo closed with a bang, however, by scoring five runs in its final at-bat. The one-out rally opened with Rees and Allen smashing first-pitch doubles to extend the lead to 5-0.

With two outs, Parsons took a 1-2 offering and belted it over the fence in left center, extending the lead to 7-0.

Singles by Hatzenbuhler, Shields and Nathan Lee, an error and a wild pitch extended the lead to 9-0 before Blake Grable came on to get the final out of the inning.

Allen, who struck out the last batter of the fifth inning, fanned the side in the sixth to end the contest.

Allen helped his own cause by going three for four with two RBIs. He also scored three runs.