OVLL Red Sox again ‘walk off’ winners

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Quin Gorbould was down to his last strike at the District 62 Tournament of Champions.

Facing an 0-2 count in the bottom of the seventh, Gorbould and his Ocean View Little League Major Red Sox teammates seemed to be running out of time.

Gorbould didn’t panic. He took a borderline pitch, then barely made contact on a foul squibber down the first-base line.

Then, he delivered, roping a single to tie the score at the Red Sox’s home field. Jeffrey Feit followed with a walk-off double to center, finishing off an intense come-from-behind, 6-5 victory over the Seaview A’s that catapulted the Red Sox into Saturday’s district championship game.

“I was just hoping that I swing nicely and put it into play,” Gorbould said.

Coach Alan Hurst was hoping the same thing, but not surprised by the result. It was the third consecutive walk-off victory for the Red Sox.

In the first round, they won, 1-0, after scoring a run in the bottom of the eighth. On Wednesday, they were down to Westminster, 4-0, in the first inning but came back for a 6-5 win, another walk-off on a hit by Connor Hurst.

“They’ve been very stressful games,” Alan Hurst said, although he still smiled after the latest thriller. “But this team has been doing it all year long. Even in the regular season, they always come back and we’d win close games. We’ve definitely been tested the whole year. We’re game-tested.”

The Red Sox were down, 5-3, headed into the seventh. But Chris Hoffman (three for three) led off with a double to right, and an out later he scored on Justin Guerrero’s double to right. Seaview pitcher C.J. McCord came back for a strikeout, but then came Gorbould’s game-tying hit.

Seaview actually led the wild game, 2-0, early on. Nick Mailman of the A’s scored in the first on Dane Collaro’s triple, and Steve Hernandez scored in the second when he doubled, stole third and scored on a passed ball.

But Hoffman scored in the bottom of the second, and Ocean View jumped to a 3-2 lead in the third when Luke Johnson and Cameron Kaneko both scored on Hoffman’s two-RBI single to left.

The A’s rallied in the top of the sixth, as McCord and Jason Kirk both singled and were brought home on Mailman’s two-RBI double to right.

Austin Chun added an RBI groundout to make the lead 5-3. But the Red Sox had an answer yet another time.

“[Comebacks are] what we’re doing now, it’s a lot of those,” Hoffman said. “[It’s] very exciting. We’re very energetic in the dugout.”

Kaneko pitched masterfully into the sixth, striking out 10. For the A’s, McCord stood out on the mound as well, striking out seven. Neither pitcher gave up a walk.

A’s assistant coach Mike Mailman, also the Seaview Little League president, just had to tip his cap to the Red Sox.

“McCord pitched 5 2/3 innings of amazing baseball, on only about 70 pitches,” Mailman said. “He was the key ... twice they were down to their last strike, but we just couldn’t get that last one. They hit the ball wonderfully to right field. He pitched it outside, they hit it outside.”

As it turned out, the A’s were just the latest victim of a Red Sox walk-off win.

“They’ve got the good ‘feng shui’ on their side,” Mailman said.