PHOTOS: Fountain Valley edges Olive in extra innings, goes for Pony Bronco tourney title

Fountain Valley’s Zachary Wiesner rips a single in the fifth inning Saturday against Olive. The catcher is Brennan Lopez of Olive. Wiesner also had a game-winning walk-off single. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Fountain Valley’s Pony Bronco 12-and-under team, nicknamed The Surge, defeated Olive of Orange 6-5 with a walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth inning Saturday in the sectional tournament at Harvard Park in Irvine.

Zachary Wiesner had the winning single which drove in Maui Sherman from third base. Sherman was placed on second base as part of the extra inning rules and stole third base.

Fountain Valley (3-0) plays Sunday at 10:45 a.m. on field one against the winner of the Olive vs. Los Alamitos game, scheduled for 9 a.m. also on field one. The Fountain Valley vs. Olive game was delayed by about an hour and 20 minutes because of the length of the previous game so the 10:45 a.m. game may not start on time.

To see the slide show, click on the first photo:

Los Alamitos, which has one loss, stayed alive with a 15-11 victory over Tustin in the late game Saturday. Tustin handily won its game against another Fountain Valley team Saturday morning.

Fountain Valley needs to win one game to win the tournament title. If a second game is needed, it would be played 30 minutes after the first game.

The top two finishers in the tournament advance into the regionals. Fountain Valley has already clinched one of the berths. The regional tournament will be held July 10-14 in Placentia.

“Whoever we play would have to beat us twice where we would just need to win one of those two games, preferably the first game,” said acting Fountain Valley manager Ellis Fortman.

Fortman said that “great defensive plays” by Austin Oko, TJ O’Barr and Kaden Fortman “saved the game multiple times.”

Fountain Valley had what appeared to be a comfortable 5-2 lead going into the sixth inning but Olive responded with one run in the sixth and two in the top of the seventh to send the game into extra innings.

In the top of the seventh inning, Olive’s Bryson Long drilled a single driving in two runs scoring Robert Herrera who singled and Brennan Lopez, who walked. Leadoff hitter Perigee Nguyen, Olive’s starting pitcher, walked to load the bases.

Long, the number two batter, had three RBI, two hits, walked once and scored a run. Other top hitters for Olive included Ian Hidalgo who had an RBI double in the fifth inning, a single in the first inning and scored a run; and Abel Marataz, who had an RBI single in the fifth inning.

Fountain Valley was led offensively by Wiesner, who had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI; Jacob Stoecker, who had two singles, three steals and a run scored; Jaxon Parr, who had an RBI single; O’Barr, who had a single, stole second and scored a run in the second inning; and Noah Gough, who had an RBI single in the fifth inning.

The game had some controversy with an Olive runner being called out for leaving too soon from second base after a fly out and another Olive player being called out on a close play at home that ended a threat.

Olive is managed by Adrian Rios and the coach is Paul Florez.

The tournament is one of four being held this weekend and hosted by Irvine Pony Baseball.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com