Mud Hens win on final at bat

The Mud Hens won an exciting game against the Iron Pigs on Saturday when Reilly Kells doubled in the winning run in the top of the sixth for a 9-7 victory in Ocean View Little League Minor A Division action.

It was the second big hit of the game for Kells, who earlier tripled in the fourth.

The Mud Hens took the lead in the top of the first when Thomas Williams tripled and scored on Kyle Roeder’s single. Jag Burden doubled in a second run. The Iron Pigs rallied for three runs in the bottom of the first to take the lead, but a run-scoring double by Zander Fletcher in the second inning tied the score at 3.

— Laurie Skorheim

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River Cats 8, Muckdogs 2: The River Cats erupted for seven runs in the first three innings and went on to down the Muckdogs in Minor A play. A run-scoring single by Luke Adelman in the first inning fueled the River Cats’ offense early. Dominic Ventimiglia had a strong game at the plate for the River Cats with singles in the first and third innings, to go along with a run batted in and two runs scored. Vincent Caiazzo gave up just one hit and no runs with four strikeouts in two innings of work.

The River Cats scored four runs in the third inning that included RBI singles by Ventimiglia and Adelman.

Jared Manzo had a triple and run scored and also threw two innings.

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Minor C Division (no score kept): The Grasshoppers and Bees met in the season opener Monday. The Grasshoppers received hits early from Evan Kalamian, Dillin Siembieda and Luke Kumaric. The Bees battled back behind hits from Kaden Chase and Kyle Palmer. Matthew Aguirre was awarded the game ball for the Bees for his overall performance.

— Kevin Carlin

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National Junior Basketball

Eighth-grade boys: Huntington Beach Basketball Club team won the All Net Division Sectional championship March 4. The team went 3-1 at the season-ending tournament. Huntington defeated La Mirada, 44-43, in the semifinals and Diamond Bar, 77-70, in the championship game.

Huntington entered the tournament with the No. 6-seed among 37 eighth-grade teams competing in pool play. Huntington finished 11-7 overall.

The team is: Spencer Wong, Alex Ballesteros, Braden Meyers, Sean Elmore, Sean Morrissey, Matt Serven, Anthony Kiriaki, Andrew Palmer and coaches Mike Elmore and Bob Serven.

Fourth-Grade All-Stars: Huntington Beach won the Area tournament title last weekend to advance to play at the Sectional tournament beginning Saturday. Huntington went 3-0 to win its Area division title.

In its first game, Huntington defeated Fountain Valley, 36-31. In the second game, it hung on to edge Los Alamitos, 33-32. In the bracket championship game, Huntington took on Newport-Mesa and came away with a 44-41 victory. Bradley Luna led Huntington in scoring during the tournament.

The fouth-grade All-Star team is: Nico Brown, Jason Gagnon, Michael Hennessy, Chase Hoglund, Noah Karliner, Myles Lopez, Bradley Luna, Hugo Menendez and Riley Sterzer. The team is coached by Fabian Luna.

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Rock Climbing

Sara Griffith of ClimbX Rock Gym in Huntington Beach competed at the USA Climbing National Championship on March 3-4 at Colorado Springs, Colo. Griffith earned a 20th-place finish in the Girls’ A Division (ages 16-17).

ClimbX will host a USA Climbing event March 31. The youth competition, a local qualifier that launches the sport climbing season, is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Huntington Beach gym.