Newport All-Stars on fire

ALISO VIEJO — The game lasted two-and-a-half-hours, but this one was out of reach by the second inning.

The 10-11-year-old Newport Beach Little League All-Stars trailed by a run against Northwood after the first inning, but a 10-run second inning — that included 10 hits and two walks — highlighted a 17-8 first-round victory in the District 55 All-Stars Tournament Tuesday at Woodfield Park.

“There are 13 kids on the roster, Newport Beach Manager Dave Bock said. “All 13 kids reached base safely — that’s unheard of. All my starters had base hits. It wasn’t a poor baseball team or a poor pitching team we played. These kids just can hit.”

The Newport Beach All-Stars move on to face Laguna Hills today at 6 p.m.

Newport Beach threatened to score in the first inning against Northwood’s starting pitcher Luke Pash, but a sliding catch by center fielder Brad Bauer ended the threat.

With the momentum on Northwood’s side, Pash took advantage and hit a two-out double to right field. He immediately scored on the next pitch as Francisco Sansone hit a single to center field against Newport Beach’s starting pitcher Reed Quackenbush.

But Quackenbush kept his head in the game and led off his team’s 10-run second inning with a ground-rule double.

After a six-pitch walk by Connor Bock, Newport Beach had three straight RBI singles and a RBI double by Cole Collins to take a 4-1 lead.

Pash gave up another RBI single to Newport Beach’s Brady Shockey and prompted a pitching change, bringing in Connor Brown.

Brown’s first batter, Jack Trush, hit the inning’s fifth RBI single and brought up Quackenbush for the second time in the inning.

Quackenbush, like his first at-bat, hit a double to left field and scored both the runners on base, making it 8-1.

After the big inning, Newport Beach coaches made a decision to put themselves in a better position for the rest of the tournament.

“Our coaches Nick Freeman and Jeff Gardner made an executive decision to pull my starting pitcher [after the second inning],” Bock said. “He pitched 17 pitches and Little League rules say that if you pitch more than 20 pitches in a game, you cannot pitch the next game.”

But Northwood made a run of its own in the same inning, making Bock second-guess the coaching change of bringing in Robby Rosoff.

“He gives up four runs in the second. Now it’s 10-5 us and we’re looking at ourselves going, ‘Oh gosh, did we make the right call or not?’ ” Bock said. “But we get up in the third inning and get five hits in a row and put up four runs on the board.”

Northwood scored two more runs in the game,

“Anything can happen,” Bock said of the team’s chances in the tournament. “They had a great two weeks of practices. The kids are really coming together. The coaches really made them believe they can play well.”

Newport Beach

Little League

All-Stars

10-11-year-olds

Cole Collins, Nick Premer, Brady Shockey, Jack Trush, Reed Quackenbush, Conner Bock, Ryan Stone, Luke Gardner, Jonathan White, Trent Attyah, Connor Deverian, Nick Fox, Robby Rosoff