Newport Harbor beats Placentia, will face Newport Beach in district championship

Kids, in general, do not need extra motivation to show up to the ballpark.

Nevertheless, the PONY Bronco 11-and-under All-Stars of the Back Bay are surely excited to know that their teams will be facing each other in the district championship game.

A pair of mercy-rule wins paved the way for the matchup to occur. Newport Harbor secured its spot in the title game with a 12-2 win over Placentia on Friday at Bonita Canyon Sports Park.

Newport Harbor will take on Newport Beach in the district championship game. First pitch is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at Bonita Canyon Sports Park.

Newport Beach, which is coached by Tom Nick, defeated Dana Point 15-4 on Thursday in the other semifinal.

The winner of the district championship game advances to the Central Regional tournament. The other three teams (Saturday’s runner-up, Dana Point and Placentia) still have a chance to make it to the regional tournament, but they will have to do so through the sectional tournament.

Carson Muto and Gavin Guy each drove in two runs. Lawson Olmstead earned the win, giving his coaches a range of arms to choose from for the final by throwing four strong innings of relief.

“We’re trying to do our best,” Muto said. “Advancing to the regionals is important. Lawson kind of did that for us pitching four great innings.”

Newport Harbor will have to fend off a scrappy Newport Beach team that took them to extra innings earlier in the season. Newport Harbor came away with a 9-8 victory in that one.

“I’m expecting real high-quality baseball,” Newport Harbor coach Sean Pence said. “[Assistant] Coach [Brent] Overfelt and that whole Newport Beach team, they’re very well coached. They’re very talented, they’re very athletic, they play great defense, and they swing the bats.

“We’re going to have to bring our top game tomorrow to really compete with them, and hope that we can have the same sort of exciting game the way we did the last time we matched up.”

Olmstead allowed just three hits and two unearned runs while striking out four. He also indicated that his team better come to play on Saturday.

“It was a really close game last time, so I think we have to come up clutch with the defense and hitting,” Olmstead said of facing Newport Beach again. “They’re a very good team, and they’re going to hit and pitch very well against us.”

Jaxson Guyser started the game and threw one scoreless inning, a striking resemblance to the “opener” strategy recently employed by the Tampa Bay Rays, in which a reliever begins the game to get through the top of the order the first time. A starting pitcher, Olmstead in this case, comes in next.

In the fifth, Guyser ended the game with a walk-off hit to left field that put the mercy-rule into effect. Despite throwing just one inning, Guyser said his favorite moment was getting the start.

“It’s always fun to watch people strike out and whiff on your pitches,” Guyser said.

Newport Harbor scored one run in each of the first three innings. A sacrifice-fly by Guy opened the scoring. Dylan Gallagher and Tyler Pence had run-scoring singles in the second and third, respectively.

An eight-run fourth inning allowed Newport Harbor to break the game open. A logjam on the bases saw runs come in on a fielder’s choice by Bode Stefano, a single by Ryan Williams and a walk by Guy.

Muto had two hits in the inning. He started the rally with a double to account for Newport Harbor’s lone extra-base hit, and he drove in two runs with an opposite-field single to right.

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner