Angels blank Red Sox

Ocean View Little League Commissioner Steph Green had to dig deep into her bag of tricks to ensure clear skies over Huntington Beach as OVLL hosted Opening Day one week late. The rain let up just long enough to squeeze in three games, which featured pitching, pitching and more pitching.

The second game of the day pitted the Angels’ Logan Pouelsen against the Red Sox’s Michael Gates in a pitchers’ duel that will be remembered for some time. Pouelsen struck out 15 and walked only one batter as he overwhelmed the opposing batters, leading his team to a 2-0 victory.

The Angels jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Nolan Strout singled up the middle to score Ben Meyers from second. Other notable hits were a triple from Pouelsen and a hard single up the middle from Matthew Rolfes. On the defensive side, catcher Michael Green fired a bullet to shortstop Tommy Kemp to catch Gates attempting a steal of second. Kemp made a perfect tag at the base to wrap up the fifth inning.

The Angels’ game ball went to Dylan Chennault, who fielded two of the three balls put into play by the Red Sox. Chennault fielded both hits cleanly and made perfect throws to first to help push the Angels to their first win of the season.

— Kim Hathcock, Community Correspondent

In other Ocean View Little League action:

Majors Division

Dodgers 3, A’s 2: Veteran OVLL pitchers Steven Cotton (A’s) and Hunter Jackson (Dodgers) battled it out Sunday afternoon in their opening game of the season. Scoreless after three innings, the A’s put two runs across on passed balls. Cotton held the Dodgers scoreless, allowing only three hits by Nick Pratto, Hunter Jackson and Ricky Martinez. Down, but never out, the Dodgers came alive in the sixth inning. Starting with a pivotal single to right field by Joey Durbin, Blake Richardson came to bat with two outs and a full-count ending in a walk.

With two on, Braydon Salzman blistered a triple to the fence to score two runs. Pratto followed suit with another screamer to center to score Salzman. Salzman closed out Jackson’s pitching efforts by retiring the A’s in the last of the sixth.

— Cathy Jackson, Community Correspondent

Minor A Division

Hot Rods 11 Knights 6: The Hot Rods pulled out to an early lead, hitting consistently in the early innings. The Knights narrowed the gap on several occasions, but were unable close it completely.

Hits by Ben Quezada, Hunter Custodio, Jacob Hathcock, Cobei Donovan and Zach Carter, as well as a double by Lucas Hansen, kept the score moving in the Hot Rods’ favor. Aggressive base running by the Hot Rods helped add to their lead.

Defensively, Hansen provided a solid performance at catcher, and key plays by Quezada in center and Zach Kurtz at second base sealed the Hot Rods’ victory.

— Kim Hathcock, Community Correspondent

Minor B Division

Rockhounds 10, Defenders 6: Rockhound pitchers unleashed their skills, with starting pitcher Cole DiMarco opening with a quick first-inning display. Edward Pelc continued the pitching streak in the second, throwing heat. Nicholas Lambert closed the third inning and Harry Dean was consistent and closed out the fourth inning. The Rockhounds wrapped up a stellar debut experience with Trenton Marsh catching his pitched pop-fly, which he converted into a double play, tagging the runner out at first.

— Patricia Pelc, Community Correspondent

Robinwood Little League

Although Opening Day for Robinwood Little League was Feb. 20, the league was unable to begin regular season play because of rain until Saturday. The kids were eager to play and it showed.

Majors Division

Brewers 2, Phillies 1: KJ Spiratos, the pitcher for the Brewers, threw a complete game in a 2-1 the victory. Spiratos pitched well, allowing one run and three hits with 10 strikeouts. Max Votaw drove in Spiratos for the first Brewers run and Mathew Coots sacrificed Votaw home for the second and decisive run.

Dodgers 3, Giants 0: Blake Thomas struck out 11 and allowed just one run in four innings work. He also went two for two with two runs scored as the Dodgers blanked the Giants. JJ Muratore threw the final two innings for the Dodgers and recorded three strikeouts.

Greg Fronek was strong on the mound for the Giants. He struck out 12, allowed two hits and no earned runs. Jun Wang had the lone hit for the Giants.

Minor A Division

Angels 8, Red Sox 7: Heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, the Angels trailed the Red Sox by three runs and with rain once again looming. It looked like the game was going to be called, but the Angels fought back to tie the score before the game was delayed by rain.

Following the rain delay, Brandon Vaccaro of the Angels took the mound and shut down the Red Sox, keeping them scoreless for the remainder of the game. Chance Sommerville had three doubles and Daniel Stephan was credited with two runs batted in for the Angels.

Pirates 14, Dodgers 8: The Dodgers started out great in the first inning, sending down the Pirates in order with their starter, Mason Ventura, needing just nine pitches. The Dodgers finished the inning by getting four runs from crafty hitting and base running. However, Pirates pitcher Seth Hoetker settled down and went on to throw three innings to get the win.

The Dodgers had great base running, led by Bobby Strachan, who had three stolen bases and scored twice.

The Pirates had key hitting with Brett Houck, who reached base three times and scoring three runs. Bryan Robinson had four RBIs and first-year player Austin Lung got his first Little League hit with the bases loaded for two RBIs. He was awarded the game ball.

Yankees 12, White Sox 4: With only three strikeouts the entire game, the Yankees’ offense was spread out evenly with the standout being Dylan Holt, who hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning. Other strong performances for the Yankees were delivered by Nathan Knapp (three runs), Parker Knapp (two runs) and Drey Despot (three RBIs).

On the defensive side, strong pitching by Cody Byer, Despot and Nathan Knapp helped the Yankees defeat the White Sox in a five-inning game that was halted by rain.

Minor B Division

Ryan Sueki of the Mariners caught a fly ball and completed an unassisted double play by stepping on second base to end the sixth inning of a close game with the Brewers.

Huntington Valley Little League

Huntington Valley Little League had its Opening Day on Saturday, despite a short rain shower in the morning that made for some soggy pancakes and rain later in the afternoon, which cut short many of the baseball games. However, gray skies and a few rain drops did not stop the show and everyone is happy to have the Spring 2010 baseball season off to a start.

Minor C Division

Crimson Tide 1 vs. Miami Hurricanes 0: The Crimson Tide was ahead in the third inning when the game was called because of heavy rain.

The boys played for about 15 minutes in the rain, but it didn’t dampen the boys’ spirits as they fully enjoyed playing in the rain and mud.

— Jeannie Ingram, Community Correspondent