Kevin Reyes of Garden Grove scores one of his two runs Friday. (Photos: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone)
Garden Grove’s 12-and-under Bronco all-stars struck twice with big innings early and went on to defeat Irvine 12-2 in the opening round of the Pony Regional Friday night at Hicks Canyon Park in Irvine.
To see the slide show, please click on the first photo
Garden Grove moves on to face St. Hedwig Saturday at 12:45 p.m. Irvine will meet Newport Harbor contest in an elimination game at 3:15 p.m. Saturday. Cypress defeated Newport Harbor 4-3 to move onto Sunday’s championship game.
In Friday’s game, Garden Grove scored a run in the first, three in the second and four in the third to take control and sealed the win with an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth inning. The game was called because of the 10-run rule.
“It was a good game across the board,” said Garden Grove Coach Johnny Hernandez. “Irvine came with it, we came with it and there is more to come so it was a good day for day one. We will leave it on the field, whatever happens happens.”
Irvine took the early lead in the first inning. Jonah Rueter reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and third and scored on a single by Xavier Ztao.
But Garden Grove responded in the bottom of the first inning. Kevin Reyes singled, stole second and third and scored on an RBI single by Hector Perez.
In the second inning, Mikey Flores had an RBI single as part of the three-run inning. In the third inning, Mo Lunegas and Reyes each had two-run doubles to put Garden Grove ahead 8-1.
Irvine scored another run in the fourth inning. Ztao singled, second stole, went to third on a groundout before scoring on a wild pitch.
But in the bottom of the fourth, Garden Grove scored two more runs. Anthony Diaz drove home one on a groundout and Chillie Escobedo drove home another run on a base hit.
Garden Grove added another run in the fifth.
Reyes had three hits and scored two runs and had two RBI to lead the offensive attack for Garden Grove. Marcos Macias had three hits and scored three runs.
Mo Lunegas had two hits, two RBI and scored two runs and Escobedo had two hits, a run scored and an RBI.
Garden Grove got strong pitching from starter Ivan Correra and Reyes, who came on to pitch in the fifth inning.
“It was a team effort, one through 12, I couldn’t be more proud,” Rodriguez said.
The seven team double elimination tournament wraps up Sunday with two teams advancing out of the region.
RELATED STORY: All-stars clinch trip to Super Regional
RELATED STORY: Placentia scores seven in final inning, loses 10-9 to St. Hedwig
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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