Friends battle in TOC

In Little League, players compete to get to the Tournament of Champions.

Usually when a team gets to the TOC, the players don’t expect to see their friends on the opposite team.

This wasn’t the case for the Newport Beach National Little League Cardinals, who were seeded No. 1, and the Newport Beach American Tigers, who were seeded second.

Both teams know each other well. Some of the players are friends, some are schoolmates and some are neighbors.

Saturday morning though, they were opponents. And, the Tigers proved they meant business.

The final score was 11-8 in the Tigers’ favor. The Tigers, the supposed underdogs in the matchup, jumped out to a 9-0 lead in less than three innings.

Yet, the final score didn’t indicate how hard the Cardinals battled just to make it a game and avoid the mercy rule.

In Little League, if a team is up by 10 runs or more after four innings, the game is called off and the mercy rule takes effect.

In the top of the fourth inning, Alex Wilde of the Tigers scored to make the game 10-0. It looked like the Cardinals were heading back to Newport Beach because of the mercy rule.

Something happened though. The Cardinals didn’t roll over, instead choosing to exhaust every ounce of effort and sweat they had.

Max Carr, Teddy Somekh, Josh Anderson, Clint Henderson and Ryan Maister all touched home plate, putting the Cardinals back in the game and avoiding the mercy rule.

“Well, in Little League anything can happen, you never give up,” Cardinal Coach Duane Hastings said. “We just had to get a few base runners on and we were really playing for one run, trying to avoid being knocked out by mercy.”

Despite the late rally, the Tigers were in control and were at an advantage mostly because of pitcher Cameron Hook.

Hook turned in a gem for the Tigers, only allowing two runs before giving way to teammate Gunnan Logan. Hook then moved over to third base, where he talked to some familiar faces.

“I know some people on the [other] team,” Hook said. “Ryan Maister and Jake Hastings I know from basketball and other sports.”

Andrew Larsen, Robby Hurst, Jared Daniels and Alex Wilde accounted for the four first inning runs for the Tigers. In the second inning, Larsen and Hurst both scored again along with Harry Lamb, Hook and Ben Rowland.

Maister started for the Cardinals and the Tigers were well aware of his reputation of being an outstanding pitcher.

“We really came out of the box and hit the baseball against the best pitcher in the Triple-A league, Ryan Maister,” Tigers Coach Charley Hurst said.

Hurst knew that his 10-run lead wasn’t safe, even heading into the bottom of the fourth.

“We had a 10-nothing lead, it looked like it was over,” Hurst said. “It’s never over and credit to the Cards for really digging deep and coming back.”

The Cardinals followed their fourth run offensive explosion with another one in the fifth inning, scoring three more runs. With two outs Henderson, Hastings and Maister all managed to score, but the Tigers offense was too much.

“I give great credit to the Tigers they came out ready to play and hit the ball really well. Cameron Hook pitched the ball well and did a great job,” Hastings said. “It’s really hard to have to play your first game against your friends. You’re rooting for all your teams to do well.”

For Coach Hurst, he had to face off against players he previously coached.

“I’ve coached Jake Hastings in basketball, Teddy Somekh in baseball. I had Jackson Rhodes on my double-A team last year, it’s a great group of kids,” Hurst said. “They are all buddies, they go to school together; it just happens to be that we play each other.”

And it just so happened that only one team moved on and that was the Tigers, who ended their season on Sunday in the Tournament of Champions after losing to Laguna Hills.

The Newport Beach American Little League Tigers: Andrew Larsen, Harry Lamb, Cameron Hook, Robby Hurst, Jared Daniels, Alex Wilde, Connor Rogers, Andrew Boukather, Ben Rowland, Jeremy Peters, Gunnan Logan

The Newport Beach National Little League Cardinals: Clint Henderson, Jake Hastings, Ryan Maister, Patrick Standel, JB Lee, Max Carr, Ryan Kleinman, Jackson Rhodes, Erika Lynn-Green, Josh Anderson, Teddy Somekh

JASON KORNFELD may be reached at (714) 966-4616 or at jason.kornfeld@latimes.com.