Costa Mesa PONY can’t solve Cypress’ Ivan Rodriguez in regional opener

Reporting from Cypress —  Of all the possible scenarios that it could have hoped for, opening the PONY Central Region tournament against the host organization may not have been on Costa Mesa’s wish list.

Regardless, Costa Mesa coach Garrett Molnar said his team had come to the tournament to win, and he sent his ace, Kevin Gallegos, to the mound in a tough matchup with Cypress.

Gallegos may have deserved a better fate, and earlier run support would have gone a long way in Costa Mesa’s pursuit of a first-round win.

Cypress’ Ivan Rodriguez threw 5 2/3 hitless innings, and the Costa Mesa 14-and-under All-Stars fell 8-4 in their regional opener on Friday night at Oak Knoll Park in Cypress.

Nikolas Ponte also went three for four with two runs batted in to lead Cypress offensively.

“It felt pretty good because I was in a slump there the last couple of games,” Ponte said. “I swung like my coaches told me to do in the cages. It felt pretty good scoring a lot of those runs.”

Rodriguez is just 5 feet 1, but he said that he feels an additional boost of confidence when he ascends the hill as a pitcher. The right-hander said that he has had no-hit outings before.

On Friday against Costa Mesa, Rodriguez rode a power curveball to a nine-strikeout evening.

“[It feels] pretty good,” Rodriguez said of opening the tournament with a win. “It’s our first game, so I just want to keep going.”

Costa Mesa had an opportunity to get to Rodriguez in the bottom of the first. Rodriguez walked three in the inning, but Cypress catcher Carson St. Amand bailed out his pitcher by throwing out two runners on the bases.

Rodriguez retired 11 of the next 12, facing the minimum over the four-inning span.

In the sixth, Costa Mesa broke through for its first run. Two more walks, to Thomas Reyes and Kaiden Kahkosko, forced Rodriguez from the game when he reached the 95-pitch limit.

Left-hander Marcus Cervantes came on in relief, and Jack Moyer singled in a run to break up the no-hitter.

Costa Mesa trailed 8-1 going to the bottom of the seventh, but it would rally against the bullpen. Jacob Allen singled to lead off the inning. Anthony Henderson reached on an error, Quinn Kirkpatrick was hit by a pitch, and Jagger Steck walked with the bases loaded.

Samuel Stute followed with a blooper that landed on the right side of the infield for another run, and Christopher Hall was hit by a pitch to force in another run.

Moyer represented the tying run at the plate, but Jacob Rothery got Costa Mesa’s shortstop to ground into a 5-2-3 double play to end the game.

“We took advantage of them not being able to throw strikes, so we got three bases, which was able to get us that rally,” Molnar said. “Like I was telling them after the game, I hope we can do that [inning] one through seven instead of the last inning.

“Hopefully, tomorrow, we’ll be able to go one through seven with that same intensity.”

Gallegos threw 4 2/3 innings, allowing five runs, two of them earned, on five hits. He walked three and struck out three.

Four of the five runs against Gallegos scored with two outs in an inning.

“We were coming in to win,” Molnar said. “There was no doubt about that one, but now we’ve got to fight back. We’ve got our backs against the wall. One more game and we’re done, so we’re going to keep fighting.”

Costa Mesa will face Irvine at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.

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