Youth Scene: NHBA 12U All-Stars go big, win district championship

The Newport Harbor Baseball Assn. Bronco 12U All-Stars took home the Bronco District championship on Sunday defeating Fountain Valley, 14-4.

Newport won its games on Friday and Saturday to set up Sunday’s championship. By winning the district tourney, the Newport All-Stars receive a bye through this weekend’s sectional tournament and will resume play at the regional tournament in Irvine July 11-13.

Luke Bashore started Sunday’s championship game and pitched an efficient three innings to earn the win.

After three innings, Newport held a 7-3 lead – in part due to Bashore’s two-run homer in the first inning. Trey Genova also clubbed a two-run homer and Jack Bibb added an RBI single to give NHBA a 5-0 lead after the first half inning.

Though Fountain Valley scored two runs of its own in the bottom of the first, Newport posted two more runs in the top of the second after Clay Liolios’ single was followed by Braham Duncan’s two-run home run to center field.

After four innings of play, Fountain Valley had closed the deficit to 7-4. The top of the fifth though saw Newport go on another offensive surge scoring five runs paced by Logan Pence’s RBI double and Simon Copeman’s RBI single.

NHBA posted two more runs in the top of the sixth inning. Brendan Duffy led off the inning with a double. After walks to Genova and Pence, Chase Greer finished off the scoring with a two-run single.

Saturday’s semifinal game against Cypress was Newport’s biggest test. After going down 3-0 after two innings, NHBA stormed back with six runs over the final four frames to secure a 6-4 come-from-behind victory.

Liolios pitched the last four innings giving up only one hit to notch the win.

Luke Hatfield, Kyle Binford and Johnny Brigandi added some stellar defense and key hits during the weekend.

— Reader submission