Newport All-Stars stay alive

LAGUNA HILLS — The Newport Beach American Little League 10-11-year-old All-Stars seemingly got the short end of the coin flip Thursday night at the District 55 All-Star Tournament.

That couldn’t explain, however, why Manager Dave Bock was smiling.

“Hey boys, visitors’ [side],” Bock yelled out. “We’re going to bat first.”

The thought excited the Newport Beach boys.

“Nice,” one of them could be heard saying. “I like batting first.”

Then they showed why, scoring twice in the first inning and going on to a 9-1 losers’ bracket win at the Laguna Hills Sports Complex.

With the victory, Newport Beach American stays alive in the tournament and plays either Newport Beach National Little League or Lake Forest, in another elimination game on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the same location. Newport Beach National plays tonight at 5:30.

Of course, strong pitching helped the win. Clay Chatham pitched five shutout innings, giving up just three hits while striking out nine. Hale Furey (two for four with a double) got two outs in the sixth, and a Saddleback run would score on a passed ball.

But reliever Nolan McCarthy shut the door, recording a strikeout to end the game.

Newport Beach American, which has now scored 28 runs in three tournament games, scored twice in the top of the first. With one out, River Robertson reached on an error, and Mathew Sherburne followed with a sharp single to center and stole second.

With runners on second and third, Chatham’s single to left scored two, giving Newport the 2-0 advantage.

Newport Beach added another run in the third when Charlie Griffin doubled home Randall Hill. They then broke the game open with four more runs in the fourth, the big blow being Robertson’s two-RBI triple to the center-field wall, which scored Jack Molnar and Ryan Udkoff.

Sherburne’s sixth-inning double scored Robertson, and Sherburne also crossed home plate on the play on an errant throw for Newport’s ninth run.