San Juan Beats Fountain Valley to Win Title : Pony League: Puerto Rican team scores five runs in first inning to overwhelm Orange County team, 8-2.

Making it to the Pony League World Series was more than Fountain Valley Coach Cliff Ritter had imagined when the season started three months ago.

But his dream season came to a disappointing end Friday night against San Juan, Puerto Rico.

San Juan defeated Fountain Valley, 8-2, to win the 40th Pony League Championship in front of 1,663 at Pony League Field.

“We started off bad and we let them get too far ahead of us,” Ritter said. “We’ve met some tough teams along the way, but this just wasn’t our night.”

The evening started on a positive note for Fountain Valley players. Before the game, they received the John Howell Award for team sportsmanship.

But after they took the field, San Juan’s batters took them deep, scoring five runs on five hits in the top of the first.

Center fielder Jose Camilo led San Juan with a triple and a homer. He went nine for 16 in four series games.

Camilo’s home run came on the sixth pitch of the game. Travis Clutter, the starting pitcher for Fountain Valley, gave up home runs to the first two batters, a triple to the third batter and a walk to the fourth.

That was enough for Ritter, who had Clutter switch positions with shortstop Kent Montgomery.

Ritter said he felt confident starting Clutter.

“The other night he struck out 15 of 17 batters,” Ritter said. “He was sharp that night. He just didn’t have a good fastball or breaking ball tonight.”

Montgomery gave up five runs in 6 1/2 innings and held San Juan scoreless from the third through fifth innings. He said if Fountain Valley could have avoided that first inning, it might have had a chance.

“At the beginning, after I saw what happened to Travis, I knew it was going to be tough,” Montgomery said. “I felt if I kept the ball down, I could get ahead. I made a few mistakes up high and they took some out, but whenever I kept it down, they were grounding out.”

San Juan starter Angel Rolon kept Fountain Valley scoreless through three innings. Rolon, who pitched five no-hitters in the regular season, was coming off a one-hit shutout over North Allegheny, in which he retired 18 consecutive batters.

“He was excellent, excellent,” Ritter said. “We got seven hits off him the whole game, but we just couldn’t get a key hit.”

Fountain Valley had a good chance to get back in the game in the seventh when it loaded the bases with none out. With an 8-2 lead, San Juan replaced Rolon with Alberto Lebron, who was able to retire three batters--Montgomery on a strikeout, Dan Keller on a fly out and Scott Graveline on a ground out--and preserve the victory.

Puerto Rico dethroned Seoul, South Korea, which won the previous three Pony League championships.

Ritter said it was a positive experience for his team. Fountain Valley arrived in Washington Wednesday, and along with sight-seeing tours, the team attended a Pittsburgh Pirates game.

“I’m real proud of this team,” Ritter said. “Not many make it this far.”

San Juan, P.R.: 520 000 1-- 8 10 1

Fountain Valley: 000 101 0-- 2 8 1

WP: Angel Rolon (2-0); LP: Travis Clutter (1-1). HRs: San Juan--Deliz, Castro, Camilo, Rolon.