Three of a kind: Newport PONY wins for third time against Seal Beach All-Stars

The untold truth is that coaches sometimes wish that their team could lose a game or two along the way to understand the tests ahead.

Now in the thick of the Mustang District Tournament, that is no longer a luxury afforded to Brent Overfelt’s Newport Beach 10-year-old PONY All-Stars.

They carried a double-digit win streak into Saturday night’s semifinal, including a pair of wins over the evening’s opponent in Seal Beach.

Before they knew it, Newport Beach was down big. The locals had to dig deep, and they found something special in a 13-9 comeback victory at Bonita Canyon Sports Park.

Newport Beach erased an 8-3 deficit to advance to the championship game against Olive PONY League. First pitch is at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

By virtue of reaching the final, Newport Beach’s season will continue in Regionals. The top three at the district championships will qualify for the tournament, which begins on July 12.

A six-run third inning was responsible for getting Newport Beach back into the game. Brady Annett’s sacrifice-fly started the scoring. Miles Pluma and Will Urtel added run-scoring singles.

After a double-steal put runners on second and third, Ganon Overfelt sent a liner back up the middle to put Newport Beach in front, 9-8.

A leadoff double by Sutton DeNinno allowed Seal Beach to tie the game on a groundout by Aidan Blanco.

No one is supposed to be able to outrun the baseball, but Brady Gadol put that to the test in his two-hit effort. His triple leading off the bottom of the fourth led to the winning run when Annett scored him with his second sacrifice-fly.

Asked where he gets his speed, Gadol said, “I don’t know. It’s probably the stuff that I eat.”

The left-hander was stellar in relief, too, allowing three hits and one run over the final four frames.

Gadol came in for Pluma, who struggled through the first two innings as the Newport Beach starter. Remarkably, Pluma showed resiliency following his outing on the mound.

Pluma made a diving catch to rob Myles Mims of a hit near the right-field line in the fifth. He also ran down a hard-hit fly ball off the bat of Blanco, turning it into a game-ending double play as the runner at second had failed to tag up.

“He’s a great athlete,” Ganon Overfelt said of Pluma. “He has a strong arm. He threw a guy out at first. He’s one of the most athletic persons I know.”

For a moment, it appeared that the celebration might be put on hold. After Gadol started his fourth inning in the sixth, the Seal Beach camp made a claim that Newport Beach would have to forfeit the game due to PONY rules.

After review, it was concluded that a player can throw up to six innings in a single game, provided that adequate rest has occurred. Gadol and company recorded the last outs, and the Newport Beach win stood.

“My heart was pounding a little bit right there,” Brent Overfelt said, adding that he would have honored the forfeit had he been in violation of the rule book.

“Rules are rules. I read the rules, and I was pretty positive that you could pitch four innings. You just needed to rest.

“(The Seal Beach coach) was cool. He came out and was really apologetic about it.”

Logan Wyler had three hits for Seal Beach. Techaniti Landis added two hits and three RBI.

Andrew.Turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner