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Olive starter Seth Windsor delivers a pitch to Placentia’s Luke Hartshorn Friday. The catcher is Christian Cicero. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Olive Orange Bronco 11-and-under all-stars captured their second straight shutout, defeating Placentia 10-0 at Harvard Park in Irvine Friday night in the second round of the regional tournament in a game called after five innings due to the run rule.
Olive Orange opened the tournament with an 10-0 victory over East Long Beach Thursday. The squad moves on to the next round Saturday at 2 p.m. vs. Irvine Red on field 4 at Harvard Park. Placentia, which won its opener over South Bay 11-0 on Wednesday, has its next game Saturday at 11:30 a.m. vs. Irvine Blue, also on field 4.
The tournament is one of three being hosted by Irvine Pony through Sunday.
Olive Orange scored two runs in the first inning and got solid pitching from Seth Windsor, Josh Perez, and Andrew Waibel to record the shutout.
“I don’t think we played our best baseball yesterday,” said Olive Orange Coach Greg Cicero. “I think we were a little lulled to sleep and I didn’t like our passion for playing the game and I challenged them and before the game to play the game with more energy and with the love of the game and let’s exude that by being happy for every single guy and every single moment and I just really applaud our guys. They played that style today.”
Placentia had two runners on with one out in the first inning but Windsor was able to work out of trouble.
In the bottom of the first, Talyx Silva had a two-run double to drive in Waibel, who walked and Windsor, who singled.
Waibel drove in a run on a groundout in the second inning and in the third inning Perez had an RBI double. Olive Orange broke the game open with four runs in the fourth inning. Talyx had an RBI single in the inning.
“It’s no secret when you pitch well, you play good defense, you give yourself a chance,” Cicero said. “But when you start adding runs early and continue to apply pressure in every inning, it’s a good recipe to win games.”
Cicero was pleased with his pitchers.
“They did an amazing job and continued to pound the strike zone and hit their spots and force them probably into spots swinging at pitches where they probably didn’t want to because we were always ahead in the count. If you pitch like that you’re going to be successful and they did.”
Christian Cicero handled the catching duties and also walked three times and scored twice for Olive.
Luke Hartshorn had two of the four hits for Placentia.
Nine teams are in the tournament. The champion goes to the zone championship while four others move on to the super regionals.
Irvine Pony has two teams in the Bronco Division. The Irvine Blue team won two of its first three games while the Irvine Red squad captured wins in its first two games.
“The tournament has thus far has lived up to its level, with so many incredibly talented teams,” said JD Hardin, president of Irvine Pony. “As each day progresses, the level of competition continues to increase. We’re glad to be able to host such a prestigious tournament and look forward to seeing these team accomplish and exceed their ambitious goals.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
