Ocean View takes district title

HUNTINGTON BEACH — The scoreboards at Little League fields tend to be simple, with no room for such luxuries as a score-by-innings.

Scoreboards around Huntington Beach don’t need one of those, though, the way that Logan Pouelsen has been pitching for Ocean View Little League. All that would show up on the opponents’ line is a bunch of zeros.

Pouelsen threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout Tuesday night, helping Ocean View win the District 62 Little League Division All-Stars title over Huntington Valley, 1-0, at the HVLL fields.

Ocean View advances to the Section 10 tournament, which begins July 18.

“I couldn’t have done it without my catcher [Chad Minato] and the team,” said Pouelsen, who didn’t allow a run in 11 ?1/3? innings pitched in the All-Star tournament. “The coaches are really good, and they’ve helped me. I’m just glad we won.”

Pouelsen is used to postseason heroics; last year he helped the Ocean View 9/10 team to district and section titles. He was efficient Tuesday evening, needing just 71 pitches over the six innings, and Ocean View gave him the only run he would need in the bottom of the third.

Chris Hoffman hit a one-out single to right, followed by a walk by Parker Melfi. Brandon Ezell also walked, loading the bases.

Huntington Valley pitcher Clay Morris fell behind Nick Zapotoczny 3-and-0, but followed with two strikes. Zapotoczny then fouled off three straight pitches before chopping an RBI single to left.

“I just wanted to make contact and just get it out of the infield,” Zapotoczny said. “I just wanted to get the run in.”

Cameron Kaneko, Minato and Daniel Amaral all added hits for Ocean View. Huntington Valley brought up the heart of its order in the sixth, but Pouelsen struck out the side to preserve the win.

“We just couldn’t buy the timely hit,” Huntington Valley Manager Rick Johnson said.

Pierson Loska smacked a ground-rule double for Huntington Valley, and Tucker DeCamp, Jake McFetridge and Noah Nelson all added hits. Morris allowed just one run on four hits, striking out four, and Eddie Yost pitched an inning of relief.

Relief was also on the mind of Ocean View Manager Tod Minato, who said his team was very fortunate to make it out of the District 62 tournament undefeated.

But, with pitching like Pouelsen provided, it was easy to see why they got it done.

“Logan’s a great pitcher,” Minato said. “He’s only 11, but I think he’s one of the best pitchers in our district. That was a really good Huntington Valley team.”

Ocean View will face the District 55 winner in the opening round of the section tournament, which takes place at the East Anaheim National Little League fields.