Baseball: Costa Mesa American wins its first All-Star game in four

years.

JOSEPH BOO

HUNTINGTON BEACH - With one swing of his bat, Brandon Hoffman

helped wipe away four years of frustration for the Costa Mesa American

Little League Majors baseball team.

Hoffman crushed a two-out grand slam in the first inning to give his

team a 4-0 lead, and CMALL held on for a 6-3 win over the Seaview Little

League Saturday in the first round of the District 62 All-Star Tournament

at Huntington Valley Little League field.

With the win, it’s first by a Costa Mesa Little League team since

1996, CMALL gets powerful Ocean View in the winner’s bracket semifinals.

That game is on Wednesday, 5 p.m., at Huntington Valley.

“I knew we had the players to win several games and meet Ocean View in

the finals,” CMALL manager Cliff Duernberger said, “except we’ll face

them in the semifinals.”

Hoffman launched a 1-and-1 pitch over the left field wall. It was a

towering fly ball that just kept sailing until it just passed the fence.

“That was critical,” Duernberger said. “You could just see their

pitcher hanging his head after that. It definitely gave us the edge.”

Seaview started getting down when CMALL’s leadoff hitter, Evan Hunter,

reached on an error. With one out, R.J. Duernberger and Andrew Sanford

singled to load the bases. After the second out, Hoffman hit his grand

slam to give CMALL a lead it would never relinquish.

“We’re a good hitting team,” Duernberger said. “Evan started it off

with a hit, and we kept going.”

Matt Doran almost hit a home run of his own in the first. He crushed a

towering fly ball to straight center. But Seaview center fielder Michael

Sheedy reached over the fence and snagged the ball, robbing Doran of his

homer.

CMALL added two more runs in the second off Sanford’s second single of

the day. That scored Hunter, who doubled, and Jamie Tinnion.

Duernberger’s son, R.J., kept Seaview at bay with a masterful complete

game. Seaview did not get a hard hit until the fifth inning, when Cory

Kindness hit a two-run homer to cut CMALL’s lead to 6-3.

“R.J. kept them off balance with his curveball, and he spotted his

fastballs well,” Duernberger said. “He tired at the end, and his

fastballs carried a little too high. They were hitting the ball hard at

the end, but fortunately, it was straight at our fielders.”

Three of Seaview’s first five hits were of the infield variety. It did

not put a runner on third base until the fifth inning, when an infield

single by Sheedy scored John Ward, who also reached on an infield single.

That was immediately followed up by Kindness’ home run.

Seaview brought the tying run to the plate in the sixth with one out,

but Duernberger struck out Ward and induced a sharp fly ball to Hunter,

who caught it to preserve CMALL’s victory.