This post was originally published on this site
Costa Mesa all-stars celebrate Friday’s opening round victory. (Photo: OC Sports Zone, Tim Burt).
Costa Mesa’s 14-and-under all-stars displayed plenty of offense Friday night, rolling to a 10-3 victory over Heartwell of Long Beach in the Pony regional tournament at Tewinkle Park.
It was the first game of the tournament for Costa Mesa, which continues play Saturday at 12:30 p.m. vs. Cypress.
The tournament, which wraps up Sunday with the championship game at 3:45 p.m., is hosted by Costa Mesa Pony.
Costa Mesa, the designated visiting team, wound up with 10 hits in support of six pitchers and held a 3-0 lead after two innings.
“It wasn’t quite as many runs as I would like, but any time you put a couple runs up there it’s good and have the other team chasing,” said Costa Mesa coach Ben Lower of his team’s start. “Hopefully you can continue building on that which we were able to do, which is good. It was a good game.”
Tristan Ramos had a big game offensively for Costa Mesa with a two run triple in the second inning and a three-run inside the park home run deep to center field in the top of the seventh which was part of a four-run inning. Colton Lower also had an RBI single in the inning.
Ramos also pitched two scoreless innings to start the game.
“He’s got the power and the wheels,” Lower said. “He can motor.”
With one out in the first inning, Costa Mesa’s Wylan Rottschafer doubled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by CJ Nicolaisen.
Third baseman Grady Jackson also contributed offensively with three doubles and Henry Mann scored three runs for Costa Mesa.
Heartwell had the bases loaded and no outs in the fourth inning but Costa Mesa worked out of the jam without any runs scoring.
Costa Mesa also scored two runs in the fifth inning, taking advantage of a single by Parker Hylton, a walk and an error and cashed in a walk and two errors into two more runs in the sixth inning.
Heartwell, which is 1-1 in the tournament, scored a run in the fifth inning and two in the seventh.
Costa Mesa will be out to improve its chances of advancing to the super regionals with another victory Saturday against Cypress, which is 1-0. The top three teams advance.’
“I think if we win that one, we’re pretty much in to move on, but the hope is to win a couple more after that. The goal is to win the whole tournament here,” Lower said.
Heartwell will try to stay alive when it faces Dana Point Saturday at 8 a.m.
Also on Saturday, Irvine faces Redondo Sunset at 10:15 a.m. Irvine stayed alive with a 9-3 victory over Tustin Thursday.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
