Local team bows out

They never gave up, going from battling local teams from Orange County to teams from Washington and Hawaii.

And, although they didn’t quite make it to the World Series, players from the Fountain Valley Pony baseball Mustang division All-Stars fought until the end.

Fountain Valley’s season ended Saturday at the Mustang (9 and 10-year-old) Zone tournament. There, they were edged by Corona, 5-4, in extra innings in the first game of the day at the Chino Hills fields. Then, Fountain Valley was bounced out of the tournament by host Chino Hills, 1-0, the lone run scoring on a passed ball.

Michael Thomas and Tommy Verdugo pitched for Fountain Valley on the final day of the Zone tournament. Fountain Valley had previously beaten a team from Scottsdale, Ariz., 17-1, and a team from Lihue, Hawaii, 13-3, to advance in the tournament.

Chino Hills topped Corona twice Sunday and moves on to the Mustang World Series this weekend in Irving, Texas.

“We had a great run,” Fountain Valley Manager Mike Thomas said. “We had to win two really tough tournaments to get to the Zone tournament.”

Fountain Valley won the regional tournament at Mile Square Park, concluding it with an 11-9 victory over Los Alamitos on July 21. Then, the local squad also finished runner-up in a 16-team super-regional tournament in Carlsbad, rebounding from a loss to Corona and advancing with a 6-3 victory over Hart on July 28.

Even though the locals lost to Corona and Chino Hills, Mike Thomas noted that those teams were basically travel-ball teams that played year-round, while Fountain Valley was a typical all-star team brought together after the regular season.

But he said he knew his team could go far. Before the all-star tournament run began, Fountain Valley won its host Memorial Day tournament, finished runners-up at a tournament at St. Hedwig and won another tournament at Los Alamitos.

During the subsequent all-star run, Fountain Valley went a combined 11-3.

“We were just a scrappy little team,” Mike Thomas said. “We were a team that was just well put together. The kids really showed a lot of heart, and that’s really want made the difference.”

Contributing to the team’s run were Abel Diaz, Tristan Hanoian, Spencer Serven, Trent Sievers, Jared Brand, Zack Edsell, Stephen Jaffke, Kyle Adams, Michael Thomas, Tommy Verdugo, Jared Sasaki and Blake Hunt. Stanton Sasaki and Bob Serven joined Mike Thomas as coaches.