Youth Baseball: Costa Mesa American wins Game 1

In just a few days, Costa Mesa Little Leaguers will once again resort to throwing the ball against a wall or garage door to satisfy their competitive baseball desires.

But the Majors Division All-Stars from Costa Mesa National Little League got an early start on the solitary offseason activity on Saturday by peppering the wood backstop behind home plate in the opening game of the annual Mayor’s Cup series with rival Costa Mesa American.

Costa Mesa American rallied for a 5-3 victory at TeWinkle Middle School, benefitting from enough free bases to fill a small dumpster.

The visiting Costa Mesa American squad, which plays its home games at Costa Mesa High, had its runners advance on seven wild pitches, two passed balls, two stolen bases (both starting with an ill-advised pickoff throw to first base from the catcher), one defensive indifference and another errant pickoff throw from the catcher that was one of three Costa Mesa National errors.

The errors and generally sloppy play, which included six walks and one hit batter by Costa Mesa National pitchers, led to three unearned runs and a do-or-die situation for the TeWinkle-based squad heading into Game 2 of the best-of-three series on Monday at Costa Mesa High.

A Costa Mesa American win on Monday would allow it to retain the perpetual Mayor’s Cup trophy that goes to the annual series winner.

Costa Mesa National, however, has won 12 of the previous 19 series between the intra-city rivals, and could do so again with consecutive wins Monday and Wednesday.

“We had some awful difficulty,” Costa Mesa National Manager Chad Gordon said. “Now, our backs are against the wall.”

Costa Mesa American catcher Caiden Curran helped provide a formidable defensive wall behind the plate for a considerably more accurate pitching staff Saturday.

Curran threw two runners out trying to steal and his receiving skills helped limit American pitchers to three wild pitches.

American hurlers Jeremy Harmer (five in four innings), Luke Jones (who struck out the side in his only inning to earn the save) and Zach Mascarenas (who worked two scoreless innings to record the win), combined for 10 strikeouts.

Mascerenas, outfielder Zach Kerkhoff and shortstop Dylan Matian were offensive catalysts for the winners, for whom Matian anchored a solid defensive effort that produced just one error.

Mascarenas singled twice in four at-bats, scored once and drove in a run, while Kerkhoff singled and doubled, the latter driving in his team’s first run to trim its deficit to 2-1 in the fourth inning.

Quality at-bats by Mascarenas Harmer and Jones to start the fifth inning helped create a three-run rally that gave American the lead for good.

Mascarenas fouled off a couple pitches with two strikes against hard-throwing closer Chris Hall, whom Gordon said had not surrendered a lead all season.

Harmer also fouled off pitches to stay alive, before rolling a swinging bunt along the first-base line that led to a throwing error. Mascarenas, who had advanced to second on a wild pitch, came home on the paly to tie the score and Harmer moved to second base.

Another wild pitch pushed Harmer to third, and he sprinted home on an ensuing errant throw to third by the catcher to complete the go-ahead rally.

Hall, who was charged with two hits and one earned run, then struck out the side to equal the strikeout total of the other four National pitchers.

Kerkhoff was two for three, while Matian was one for one with two walks and scored twice. Matian also made a sparkling play in the fifth inning, diving to his left to short-hop a sinking liner, then throwing a strike to first while still on the ground to retire the batter.

Harmer reached base three times, including two walks, and scored the go-ahead run.

Hall and Ta’ita’i Grey-Uiagalelei were both two for three for the hosts. Grey-Uiagalelei drove in a run, while Hall scored once.

Outfielder Dane Dodge singled and drove in a run, while shortstop J.J. Kibin was one for two with a walk and scored twice for Costa Mesa National.

“We just tried to stick to the game plan, just be patient and just play baseball,” said Costa Mesa American Manager Tony Mascarenas. “We finally got the bats going and the cool thing was it was against their [hardest-throwing] pitcher.”

Also contributing for the winners were Joshua Gough, Anthony Henderson, Nathan Baker, Jesse Ambrose, Sydni Griffin and Robby Crowell.

Additional support for Costa Mesa National was provided by Hudson Letterman, Jonah Shapiro, Keyden Kahkosko, Dimitri Sosudko, Josh Gordon, Adler Avakian, Nolan Turk and James De La O.

National’s James Rourock was sidelined with an injury.