Nickname proves to be nemesis for Dodgers

LAGUNA NIGUEL — All season long, the Newport Beach National Little League Majors Division Dodgers were chasing the Cubs.

They lost four of five games to the league champion Cubs in the Newport Beach National Little League.

So it was a familiar position Thursday night for the Dodgers in the first round of the District 55 Tournament of Champions. This time, they fell to the Northwood Little League Cubs at La Paz Field, 10-1, ending the Dodgers’ season.

“I think we have the curse of the Cubs,” Dodgers Manager Keith Banning said. “That’s our seventh loss all year, and five were to the Cubs. We just don’t do well against the Cubs.”

But anytime a team makes it to the TOC, it has to be doing something right. The Dodgers (14-7) showed their resiliency in the second inning, after falling behind, 1-0.

With one out in the bottom of the second, the Dodgers’ Max Stone doubled down the third-base line. An out later, Rusty Padia singled past the Northwood shortstop to score Stone, knotting the score at 1-1.

“We had a really good season,” Banning said. “We had very good pitching all year, very good defense and we scratched out the runs when we needed them. When we got beat, I felt good about it. Somebody beat us; we didn’t give the game away.”

Northwood would indeed begin to beat the Dodgers, scoring three runs in the top of the third on doubles by Luke Langdon, James Carrig and J.J. Albright. All would come around to score.

Blake Sudek led off the bottom of the third with a bloop single for Newport, but he was stranded on first base.

The Cubs, meanwhile, scored two more times in the fifth — on five walks — and three more runs in the sixth to put the game out of reach.

The Dodgers tried to rally in the bottom of the sixth, when Tommy Padia singled to center and Tyler Duncan walked. But Northwood got a lineout to short to end the game.

Blake Grable had perhaps the Dodgers’ hardest-hit ball of the night, a rocket to center in the third, but the Northwood center fielder made a shoestring catch. That kind of night for the Newport Beach squad, which nevertheless had positives.

Late in the game, Banning said Dodgers shortstop Neema Korori, who had subbed in for Chris King, had a request.

“[Korori] said, ‘You know coach, can Chris King come up and hit for me? I think he deserves to hit in the last inning,’ ” Banning said. “Neema stayed in there, but that showed what type of team we had.

“That’s all you can ask for as a manager, to have a bunch of kids who are very supportive, and that’s the kind of team chemistry we had this year.”

The Dodgers: Ben Banning, Blake Grable, Tommy Padia, Tyler Duncan, Max Stone, Chris King, Rusty Padia, Jeff Harrison, Blake Sudek, Neema Korori, Travis Martin, Weston Wright.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at [email protected].