Newport Beach upended

BY TONY LEE

CORONA DEL MAR — Newport Beach All-Star Ben Humphreys is a good listener.

With the hundreds of 11- to 12-year-old Newport Beach All-Stars fans chanting, “Let’s go Newport,” and “Go Ben” at Lincoln Elementary Tuesday, Humphreys decided to listen to a West Coast Charger Little Leaguer’s requests over all others.

“Ben, if you hit a home run, I’ll give you a cookie,” Hugh Crance yelled from the right field bleachers, which were one of the many areas packed with Newport Beach fans.

On a hanging curveball from Laguna Hills’ starting pitcher Cameron Bondy, Humphreys hit a two-run blast, scoring Logan Miller and giving his team an early lead in the championship game of the District 55 Tournament.

Humphreys may have gotten a cookie, but he and the Newport Beach All-Stars fell short of gaining the first district title in the program’s history for that age division. Laguna Hills answered Humphreys’ homer with a 10-2 victory to win the District 55 championship.

“On one of the few mistakes [Bondy] made all night long, Ben hammered it about 270 [feet] to center,” Newport Beach Manager Duane Hastings said. “Ben’s a big-time player. He always comes to play.”

But Laguna Hills, most definitely Bondy, came to play too on Tuesday and made like the first time it beat Newport Beach, 11-2, on July 1. However, the Newport Beach All-Stars thrived while facing elimination, winning six straight games to force Tuesday’s final championship game, the third time this decade Newport Beach played for a district title (2002 and 2006).

In the losers’ bracket, Newport Beach got hot, scoring 53 runs in five wins. The local All-Stars then scored a 5-3 win Monday, dealing Laguna Hills its first loss of the tournament.

Humphreys’ home run Tuesday was his fourth of the tournament, while Parker Reposa hit six homers in the tourney.

Yet it was Bondy who stole the show. Bondy, who struck out 10, allowed only five more Newport Beach base runners after the Humphreys home run.

“Bondy is probably one of the best guys you’ll see in California,” Hastings said of the Laguna Hills pitcher who also contributed two RBIs for the winners. “He’s got great velocity, great location and a 12-6 breaking curveball. That’s tough to hit.”

After the 2-0 lead, Laguna Hills immediately responded with a big inning of its own and scored all the runs it needed to win the game.

Reposa, who pitched a perfect first inning, started the second by striking out Lucas La Mont on a changeup and on his way to protect the lead.

But he walked the next two batters. After the walks, Laguna Hills scored three runs that inning with a RBI double by James Walraven, a RBI single by Jack Chavez and Drew Beals scoring off a wild pitch.

“It was a lot of timely hitting, a lot of good base running and putting ourselves in a position to go ahead,” Laguna Hills Manager Mark Zuvich said. “We had a nice bunt from Chris Brown, a nice hit from Jack Chavez and obviously the home runs [from Grant Shoults and La Mont] helped a lot too.”

The game remained close, until a six-run sixth inning by Laguna Hills, largely due to great defense from both teams, especially from Newport Beach’s Will Hinkelman.

“Will was terrific,” Hastings said. “He must’ve made six or seven defensive plays tonight — number of them being very difficult plays ... He struggled a little bit early in the tournament, but stepped it up in the end.”

With three outs left in the tournament and trailing 10-2 to Laguna Hills, Miller drew a lead-off, walk hoping to start a rally.

After two more strikeouts from Bondy, “Mighty Max” Kline beat out a throw for an infield single giving the Newport Beach faithful hope.

However, Bondy continued his dominance on the mound and ended the game just like he started, with a strikeout.

Chavez, who went two for three with a run, had a game-high three RBIs and Shultz had a game-high three runs for Laguna Hills.

Bondy and La Mont added two RBIs each.

Newport Beach’s Reposa struck out two and Cameron Cook, who pitched three innings of relief, had three strikeouts.

All in all, Humphreys said this has been a one-of-a-kind experience.

“Every single other All-Star tournament, there hasn’t been this many people in the city supporting us here,” he said. “It’s just a great experience.

“We played hard, believed and we did a great job.”