Newport Beach short on juice

LAGUNA NIGUEL ? As the sun began to set, the baseball field’s lights turned on. The electricity was fully functional at Chapparosa Park. But for some reason, there seemed to be a power outage in the Newport Beach American Little League dugout.

The same Majors Division All-Star team that lighted up the scoreboard in its previous four games of the District 55 Tournament, averaging 11 runs per, managed only one run through the five innings.

A team meeting prior to the sixth stirred up enough energy for three more runs, but that left Newport Beach one short as it lost 5-4 in the championship game to Laguna Hills Thursday. The loss ended Newport Beach’s season.

Catcher Brent Lawson said the first inning, in which the team was set down in order, has always been a key supplier of energy for Newport.

“All the games we won when we jumped on them early,” Lawson said. “We’ve scored eight and nine runs in the first inning. This game we didn’t do it. When we jump on them, we get fired up and then our offense converts over to our defense.”

But that didn’t happen and Newport Beach found itself down, 5-1, with three outs to keep its season alive. The team took a minute together to put the moment in perspective.

“We said ‘We’re a better team,’ ” Lawson said. “We know we are a better team than them. It was our inning. It was a motivational talk.”

And it worked as Chase Favreau led off the inning with a single to right.

“We were really fired up,” Favreau said.

J.D. Dawn followed with a single over second base. A ground-rule double down the right-field line by Andrew McCormack put the score at 5-2 and brought the tying run to the plate with two runners in scoring position.

“We played good together,” third baseman Zach Murtaugh said. “We didn’t get down on ourselves.”

Two groundouts cut the deficit to 5-4, but that would be it for Newport Beach.

The time an all-star team spends together is short, but with the increased level of play a different bond is built. Cort Hastings remembered being excited about practice.

“There weren’t any rivalries,” Hastings said. “Practices were fun. With other teams, you’re like ‘Do I really have to go to practice.’ With this team it’s ‘Can we practice today? We don’t have practice today, aw man.’ You can’t wait to get out there.”

Left fielder Allen Brown, who had an RBI and a double, agreed.

“We practice hard, but at some points we’re just hanging out,” Brown said. “[Laguna Hills] was a tough team. You learn more when you lose.”

The experience was not lost on Favreau.

“My favorite part about playing with these guys is that they are good friends and I like being around them,” Favreau said. “They don’t quit and they fight to win. Usually it’s tough when you lose close games, but deep inside you know you made it to all-stars and had a great time”

The Newport Beach offense sparked to open the second inning as McCormack ripped the first pitch over the left-field fence. The home run cut the lead to 4-1.

Newport Beach had two runners in scoring position after Brown’s double in the fourth, but nothing came of it.

Newport Beach also lost to Laguna Hills, 11-6, in the semifinals in an error plagued game.

“We knew we could beat them both times,” Lawson said. “We just didn’t play to our potential.”

Newport Beach had one more extra-base hit and outhit the champions, 7-6, Thursday.

Laguna Hills came in with energy to spare ? having not played Wednesday as it waited to see who it would play ? and scored two runs on a single and a homer in the first three pitches.

he errors that haunted Newport Beach in the first meeting resurfaced and gave Laguna Hills a 4-0 lead before Favreau made a diving catch in center field to end the inning.dpt.14-litleague-2-BPhotoInfoNL1SUBQO20060714j2dn20ncCredit: PHOTOS BY JAMIE FLANAGAN / DAILY PILOT Caption: (LA)Brent Lawson of the Newport Beach American Little League Majors Division All-Stars makes contact with the ball during Friday’s game agains Laguna Hills. dpt.14-litleague-1-BPhotoInfoNL1SUBUI20060714j2dmzincCredit: Caption: (LA)Newport Beach pitcher Brandon Zelner delivers Thursday night.