Fountain Valley’s Ethan Cisneros is congratulated by teammates after a three-run home run Saturday., (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Fountain Valley’s 12-and-under Pony Bronco baseball team, trying to survive another day at the regional tournament in Placentia, was eliminated Saturday when it lost to John Mendez from Wilmington 14-4 in a game called in the fifth inning due to the 10-run rule.
Host Placentia won its second straight game defeating Olive Orange 12-7 in the first game Saturday at Placentia Champions Sports Complex. Olive stayed alive by defeating John Mendez 11-1 later in the day.
Santa Ana earned a split, winning the second game over East Long Beach 10-5. Olive and Santa Ana will play an elimination game Sunday at 11:15 a.m. The winner meets the loser of the Placentia-Torrance game Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
Placentia meets Torrance Sunday at 9 a.m. in the first game. The tournament championship is Monday at 5 p.m. with a second game to be played if necessary about 30 minutes after the first game.
Three teams from the regional advance to the super regional next week in Corona.
To see additional photos, click on the first picture:
Fountain Valley players and coaches had high hopes entering the regional after the team won the sectional tournament in Irvine and went undefeated. But FV had a rough start in the sectional Thursday, losing 10-3 to Irvine. The FV Surge stayed alive with a 13-2 win over Newport on Friday but still needed four straight wins to reach Monday’s championship game.
“It was a tough game, we certainly did not expect to be leaving the tournament today,” said Fountain Valley Manager Ellis Fortman. “We came in with every expectation of winning a couple of games, I do have to hand it to the other team, John Mendez, good team, they hit the ball well.
“I thought our pitchers did a good job, but I think there were several errors we made which was uncharacteristic of us and ultimately it was those errors that did us in. But I’m definitely proud of the boys, proud of the team and what they represent, proud of them winning a banner in the sections tournament and for what they accomplished. Now it’s kind of buckle up and get ready to go to Cooperstown in a couple weeks (for another tournament).”
John Mendez put together three hits and two walks off Fountain Valley starter Zach Wiesner in the first inning. Jeremy Bravo drove in two of the runs with a single. John Mendez extended its lead to 4-0 with a run in the third inning.
In the top of the fourth, Fountain Valley tried to get back into the game. With two outs, Jaxon Parr doubled, stole third base and scored on a pinch-hit single by Wyatt Middleton to cut the lead to 4-1.
John Mendez countered with three runs in the fourth inning to move ahead 7-1.
In the top of the fifth, Fountain Valley’s Ethan Cisneros belted a three-run home run driving in Kaden Fortman and Jacob Stoecker to cut the lead to 7-4. But in the bottom of the inning John Mendez batted around to score seven runs and put the game out of reach.
Fortman was hoping the home run by Cisneros would provide a spark for the Surge.
“At that point of the game, it’s 7-1 …. Ethan hits that three-run home run and we’re back in the game and that was huge,” Fortman said. “Ethan has done that for us all year long, it wasn’t surprising at all, it got us back into the game.”
Fortman said he was aware of the challenge Saturday.
“Any time you get into the loser bracket, it’s a really tough climb, we were aware of that, you prefer to stay in the winner’s bracket, but overall, I think their battled and their fight was still admirable and enough for me to be proud of.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
More Stories
San Juan Hills standout Mason Hodges begins next chapter with UCI basketball
Irvine Pony Bronco 12-and-under team moves on to regional tourney in Placentia
Fountain Valley, Orange and Irvine among OC teams in Pony Bronco regional