Newport Harbor wins West Zone opener

Adam Martin is an Energizer Bunny.

The diminutive Newport Harbor Baseball Assn. pitcher slammed the door on Pacific Grove in a 6-3 victory Thursday night at York Field in the first game of the PONY 12-and-under Bronco West Zone tournament.

He preceded this by winning a two-mile race just hours before for the Newport Beach Junior Guard.

“I wasn’t tired,” Martin said. “I didn’t want to do the race, at first, but I’m glad I eventually did. It calmed me down tonight.”

He pitched two-hit baseball over four innings, striking out three batters while hardly breaking a sweat.

Before he entered, Newport Harbor jumped all over the visitors – hailing from right outside Monterey, Calif.

Jack Davey smacked a leadoff double, and two pitches later, Dimitri Sudsiko drove him home for the opening run. Bryson Shea followed that with an RBI-single, and just like that, the score was 2-0.

Shea – the son of head coach Ryan – started on the mound, and flashed strong defense all night long. He confidently retired six of seven batters in the first two innings, including one punch out.

Pacific Grove finally woke up from their five-hour car ride with a rally in the top of the third. After two more Shea strikeouts, a blown pick-off at second brought Pacific’s Marshall Pearman and Sean Ishii into scoring position. A Sam Knox single shaved the lead down to 3-2.

With the visitors rocking in their dugout, the elder Shea knew his team would stay composed.

“They’re beach kids,” he said. “They just have quiet confidence. We knew Adam (Martin) was coming in to pitch, and we felt his pitching and our defense would kill their momentum.”

The 4-foot-7 Martin answered the call. He immediately got Pacific Grove’s Jack Giammanco to whiff on a changeup for the first out. He quickly forced two more groundouts to end the top of the fourth.

After Martin walked on his at-bat, Jake Shubin got him to second base by zipping a single down the first-base line. Walker Vaicek slapped a blooper to left field for an RBI-single, and Shubin slid home after a passed ball to bolster the lead to 5-2.

After another gem by Martin in the fifth, Newport manufactured a run with some small ball. The younger Shea snuck a single by the shortstop, and followed that by stealing second. After Evan Hesse advanced him to third on a groundout, Cruz Collier found the outfield gap for another scoring single.

Now trailing 6-2, Pacific Grove utilized an infield error to tack an unearned run off Martin. They needed three more runs to force extra innings, but Martin cemented the win with his glove.

He was practicing fielding grounders right before the final pitch.

“I do that sometimes to stay level,” he said. “I always need to keep moving.”

The final swing trickled right to him, and he stepped on the bag to end the night.

With the victory, Newport Harbor faces the winner of Thursday night’s Portland (Ore.) vs. Whittier (Calif.) game Friday night at 7:30 p.m. The winner of the West Zone tournament goes to the PONY International World Series in Los Alamitos Aug. 3 to Aug. 6.

SAM DODGE is a contributor to Times Community News.