Fountain Valley rallies past Ocean View, 7-6

Mike Sciacca, Independent

Fountain Valley Little League’s 9/10 Division All-Star team staged

a late inning rally Tuesday night to defeat Ocean View, 7-6, in the

opening game of a best-of-three series held at Huntington Valley Little

League.

Fountain Valley trailed, 5-1, through four innings of play, but broke

through in the bottom of the fifth inning by scoring six runs to take a

7-5 lead.

Geoff Feltman, Zack Cardenalli, Chris Martinez, and Kevin Smisko all

had key hits during the outburst, but it was Johnny Spirk’s three-RBI

single that highlighted the inning.

“It was a great comeback by the boys,” winning Manager Steve Johnson

said. “It’s a great win, too, but we made too many fielding errors. We’ll

need to shore things up on defense if we hope to keep winning.”

Spirk also hit a solo home run in the first inning for Fountain

Valley, which had a chance Wednesday night to wrap up the district title

in game two of the series. An Ocean View victory would force a third and

deciding game tonight at 5 p.m., at Huntington Valley.

MJ Forsberg and Scott Baxter had key hits for Ocean View, relief

pitcher Matt Ayster threw a solid game, and center field James Miller

starred in the outfield and was Ocean View’s player of the game, Ocean

View Manager Jeff Spirk said.

In other games:

Ocean View 11, Seaview 0

Adrian Conger hit a home run and double, and finished with four RBI,

MJ Forsberg singled twice, walked, and scored two runs, James Miller,

Kyle Hughes, and Aaron Chatigny all singled, and Hughes and Forsberg

combined on a four hitter in four innings for Ocean View, which scored

its 11 runs on seven hits in the first inning. The Mercy Rule victory

sent Ocean View into the district finals. In winning the Area 1 crown,

Ocean View outscored its three opponents, 28-1.

Ocean View 11, Huntington Valley 0

In another Mercy Rule victory called after five innings, winning

pitcher Scott Baxter allowed three hits and struck out nine in four

innings work, Forsberg doubled, walked three times, and scored two runs,

Baxter had two hits and two RBI, Matt Ayster doubled, singled, had two

RBI, and made a great defensive play, and Hughes doubled and singled to

highlight a 13 hit attack by Ocean View, which broke the game open with a

seven run fourth inning.