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Players and coaches from Long Beach (right) and Irvine meet after Wednesday’s game. (Photo: OC Sports Zone, Tim Burt).
Cypress, Heartwell and Long Beach 14-and-under Pony League teams captured victories in their opening games of the regional tournament at TeWinkle Park in Costa Mesa.
The tournament is being hosted by Costa Mesa Pony Baseball.
Heartwell from Long Beach defeated Dana Point 12-4 and Cypress topped Los Alamitos 7-3 on Tuesday.
In the opener Wednesday, Long Beach defeated Irvine 11-0 in a game called after five innings
Roshan Patel and Connor Cho had the two hits for Irvine. Patel pitched all five innings for Irvine, which had two hits off four pitchers, including starter Xavi Nunez.
“They did a great job, they’re a big team,” said Irvine Coach Townsand Cropsey. “We were playing to keep it tight, our team is mostly comprised of 13-year-olds, we only have two 14-year-olds. Unfortunately we’ve been playing up all summer. It’s been tough but I thought the kids did a great job today.
“They didn’t have any real catastrophies on our team, so I was proud of them. Patel pitched 93 balls today and did a great job. We normally don’t ask him to pitch over 60.”
Long Beach scored three runs in the first inning to take control. Jake Torres had an RBI single, Julian Lucerro drove home a run on a triple and Ethan Barrientos had an RBI single. The team had five steals in the inning.
In the second inning, Danny Anderson had an RBI single and Jack Champlin drove home a run with a sacrifice fly to put Long Beach ahead 2-0.
Long Beach added three more runs in the third inning. Lucas Heilig and Anderson had RBI singles.
Long Beach added a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth inning.
Irvine will try and bounce back Thursday in a 6:45 p.m. game, needing a win to stay alive while Long Beach will play Redondo Sunset Friday at 6:45 p.m.
Tustin faced Placentia in the late game Wednesday night.
The tournament continues through Sunday with the top three teams moving on to the super regional tourney.
For more on the tournament, click here:
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone, timburt@ocsportszone.com
