District Play Begins
- Updated: June 24, 2019
Four homers in three innings! That stat belongs to Ocean View Little League as they cruised on Day 1 of the District 62 All-Star Tournament. What follows is an overview of what I saw this past weekend in District 62(Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa area) and District 38(Long Beach area). These are two of the Little League areas that started play on the Road to Williamsport. There are so many teams competing right now, that I will just lay things out in a brief notes kind of format. I am listing quite a few names. Let me apologize in advance if I left out some deserving stars. I promise to keep improving. By the way, the first photo you see below is from Long Beach Little League’s wonderful glass case of photos and Little League memorabilia. It is like a small museum that one should check out when visiting Long Beach Little League.
SCORES/RESULTS:
***Greater Bellflower Little League defeated Lakewood Village Little League
***Long Beach Little League defeated Lakewood Little League
***Huntington West Little League defeated Costa Mesa National Little League 4-3
***Ocean View Little League defeated Fountain Valley Little League 16-0
***Huntington Valley Little League defeated Costa Mesa American Little League 14-0
SHORT(AND I DO MEAN SHORT) SUMMARIES;
Huntington West beat Costa Mesa National 4-3 in an intense opening game in District 62. It was a great battle all the way to the end.
Ocean View launched four home runs in their victory over Fountain Valley. The game was at Ocean View Little League and it takes a little extra muscle to get it over their tall fences.
Huntington Valley prevailed over Costa Mesa American by producing their runs with a lot of well placed and well-struck singles and doubles.
GOLD GLOVES:
***Ashton Arroyo of Huntington West made a super nice play on the mound during his effective pitching effort.
***Jake Humphries of Costa Mesa National made a number of excellent fielding plays at shortstop to keep his team in the game.
***Tommy August of Huntington Valley made multiple fine plays at 2nd base while showing quick reactions and great baseball sense.
HOME RUNS:
***Ashton Arroyo hit one for Huntington West.
***Hudson Espinoza hit a blast for Ocean View.
***Freddie Angiuli also knocked one out for Ocean View.
***Tyler Twardowski belted two for Ocean View.
EXTRA EFFORT:
***Ryo Deguzman of Huntington West deftly made his way around for two stolen bases.
***Miles Dodge of Costa Mesa National pitched a gritty game to keep his team close.
***Cooper Cirillo of Costa Mesa National did a fantastic job at catcher. He blocked balls in the dirt well and threw out a runner in a pickle.
HOT HITTERS:
***Shayden Sorachman of Huntington West
***Matt Haidl of Ocean View
***Casey Flynn of Ocean View
***Otto Espinoza of Huntington Valley
NOTES/OBSERVATIONS:
***Costa Mesa National fans are a splendid, enthusiastic bunch! Loved that! There are many chants that the players(or most teams) make in the dugout, but I enjoyed hearing Costa Mesa National players belt out “Battle, Battle…Hit it to Seattle!” I hope I heard that correctly. It was good encouragement.
***Great sportsmanship was shown by Huntington West pitcher Ryo DeGuzman after he hit a batter with a pitch. His caring for the batter even drew praise from the Costa Mesa National fans.
***It was interesting to see Ocean View run a “phantom” infield/outfield drill without a ball. It looks like it builds good baseball habits.
***In one game it was fascinating to see a runner run to first base on a third strike that was clearly caught by the catcher without hitting the ground. His running to first caused a throw and then another throw around the infield that got away. The runner who was on second scored on that clear strikeout. The ump was clear in his strikeout call too. It just goes to show that quick reactions and thinking often play a big role in the game.
***In the Long Beach game a foul ball hit a light bulb in of the light towers near the infield. It shattered the bulb and a ton of little pieces came crashing down to the crowd like rain. There was a cover over much of the stands and, luckily, it a appeared nobody got injured in any serious way.
***Uniform watch: Long Beach had their classic red, white and blue. Ocean View had their classic uniform as well. Both of those look really sharp. I also like Huntington Valley’s grey and orange old school type uni this year. HV often changes their uniforms for majors and they usually produce really nice looking ones.
Big games for District 62 are on Monday night with the four undefeated teams battling: Seaview vs. Huntington West and Ocean View vs. Huntington Valley. We should see some really good baseball.
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