Majors all-star team meets end of road in district play

What began on a rare high note ended abruptly Monday for the Laguna

Beach Little League Majors Division All Star team.

By routing Northwood in its District 55 All Star Tournament opener

July 5, Laguna Beach made a statement to the rest of the Majors All

Star teams that it was a talented team that demanded to be noticed.

Lake Forest-American and Rancho Niguel both took note, then

brought their A-games over a two-day period, as both defeated Laguna

Beach to eliminate the locals from the double-elimination tournament.

Lake Forest-American, actually, showed Laguna Beach little mercy

Saturday in rolling to a 10-0 victory in a game called after four

innings.

Rancho Niguel, meanwhile, was in a nail-biter Monday with Laguna

Beach, but managed to score four late runs to come up with a 5-0 win.

Laguna Beach bats were pretty much silent in both setbacks, this

coming from a team that produced 15 hits and 14 runs in a 14-7

tournament-opening romp past Northwood.

“I don’t know how to explain it, other than we just couldn’t get

anything going in either of those games,” Laguna Beach manager Steve

Contursi said. “We didn’t look like the same team that won big

against Northwood.

“We really weren’t in the game against Lake Forest-American, but

we played hard and took Rancho Niguel to the very end. I guess it

just wasn’t our day in either of those games.”

After falling, 10-0, Saturday to Lake Forest-American, a game in

which Brian Vail had a bunt single and Alec Loechner singled -- each

coming in the fourth inning to break up a no-hitter -- Laguna Beach

came back strong Monday against Rancho Niguel.

They trailed just 1-0 through four innings, behind the strong

pitching of Keaton Jones, who had yielded only an unearned run.

Laguna Beach had a chance to get back into the ballgame in the top

of the fifth, but stranded base runners at first and third.

“Keaton executed his pitches perfectly, had his change-up working

and did what he was supposed to do, but they just hit some dinkers

that barely got through our infield, which was playing up,” Contursi

said. “If we were playing in position, none of those hits would have

escaped our infield.”

Rancho Niguel came up with only one solid hit in the decisive

fifth -- a double -- then pieced together three consecutive dinkers

that barely found their way out of the infield.

Those hits led to four runs, which gave Rancho Niguel some

breathing room at 5-0.

Stevie Contursi replaced Jones in the middle of the bottom of the

fifth, and made the defensive play of the game for Laguna Beach when

he made a reflex catch of a line shot back to the mound, then doubled

up a runner at first base on the play, to end the inning.

Loechner and Rex Strombotne singled for Laguna Beach.

“The final score is really deceiving,” Steve Contursi said. “It

was not a 5-0 game, it was a 1-0 game. We had their number, but we

just couldn’t get any big hits.

“We all went away from that game feeling good about how we played,

and it’s certainly been one of the best postseasons in the history of

Laguna Beach Little League.”

In addition to the Majors All Stars going 1-2 in the district

tournament, Rotary and Sportsworld, which represented Laguna Beach at

the District 55 Tournament of Champions which preceded the All Star

tournament, each won a game and were a combined 2-2 in the

tournament.

The 2005 Laguna Beach Majors All Star team was comprised of Jones,

Loechner, Vail, Strombotne, Stevie Contursi, Alec Burk, Spencer

Freidenrich, Michael Hyden, Alex Iannotti, Austin Paxson, Tyler

Pierce, Shane Selfridge, Shane Takabayashi and Andrew Wheeler.