Newport Beach Baseball Assn. continues PONY West Zone run

The Newport Beach Baseball Assn. stands just two victories from a trip to the PONY Bronco World Series.

The 11-and-under All-Stars pulled out a tight 4-3 victory over host Walnut Valley on Friday evening in an encounter that started sloppily but quickly evolved into a dynamite pitcher’s duel.

The Tridents claimed their 13th successive victory by coming back at Creekside Park, taking command of the upper bracket in the eight-team West Zone championships when Gannon Overfelt ripped a single through third baseman Gavin Chavez’s legs to bring home Brady Gadol with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh.

It sends Newport Beach to Saturday afternoon’s bracket final against Walnut Valley or Seattle, which meet in an elimination game in the morning. The Tridents routed Seattle 14-6 in their tournament opener Thursday.

A triumph in that one and a win in Sunday’s title game — Escondido, Mililani, Hawaii and Vacaville are alive in the other bracket — would mean a trek to Chesterfield, Va., for the World Series.

“Can’t look ahead,” Newport Beach assistant coach Brent Overfelt said. “The boys are having a blast. Can’t let off the gas. It’s all about energy with this team.”

Right-hander Andrew Niccol worked through two difficult innings, surrendering two runs on a pair of wild pitches and three errors — two of them on pickoff throws — then was in command the rest of the way, throwing 41 strikes to 12 balls from the third inning until he exited after hitting the pitch ceiling after six innings. He gave up just three hits and all three runs, and Brady Andrews worked out of a small jam in the seventh.

Walnut Valley’s Jacob Norton was just as good, maybe better, throwing 66 strikes on 85 pitches — his limit — through 6 2/3 innings.

“He’s one of the best 11-year-old pitchers I’ve seen,” Overfelt said. “He was dealing, had two pitches going, throwing hard — as hard as we’ve seen all year. He pitched fantastic.”

Newport Beach’s Brady Andrews slides safely into second base with a steal as the Walnut Valley infield chases the throw from home in a PONY Bronco 11-and-under West Zone tournament game at Creekside Park in Walnut on Friday.

(Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

Newport Beach got to him in the first, when Andrews singled, stole second, went to third on a passed ball and scored on an error, and again in the fourth to trim the deficit to 3-2. Jackson McDonald reached on an error, stole second, went to third on a groundout and came home on Jamie Ott’s single to right.

Newport Beach pulled even in the sixth on back-to-back one-out doubles by Matthew Melton and Niccol, then prevailed after Norton departed with two outs in the seventh.

Walnut Valley reliever Jesse James Carrillo started with four balls to Gadol, who then stole second and third before Gannon Overfelt brought him home.

“That 85th pitch [by Norton] could have been the MVP of the game,” Brent Overfelt said. “Hitting that kind of opened the doors for us a little bit. We got a guy on, fastest guy, gets to second, gets to third, and we have a nice hard-hit ball that was hard to handle.”

SCOTT FRENCH is a contributor to Times Community News. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottJFrench