Newport’s Moskovits heating up in regionals

Steve Virgen

Sports fans call it “the zone,” the place where near perfection is

reached. In the bottom of the sixth, the Newport Harbor Baseball

Association Bronco A 11- and 12-year-old All-Stars were in the zone.

Newport scored five runs off six hits, including four straight

hits, to overcome a 3-2 deficit, leading to a 7-4 victory over

Fontana in the South Region tournament Thursday at Chino Hills

Community Park.

“They’re just really at that place where they believe they can

win,” NHBA Manager Rich Hogan said. “They’ve gotten to the point

where they’re not worried about the opponent.”

After recording two close-shave victories last week to earn a

berth into the South Region tournament, the NHBA Bronco A All-Stars

found that extra something once again to pull away from Fontana.

Newport is also making history. This is the first time a Newport

Harbor team has reached a regional tournament.

The Newport All-Stars, the No. 2 seed, will play Dana Point in the

semifinals of the eight-team, double-elimination tourney today at 5

p.m. Dana Point advanced to the semifinal after host Chino Hills was

disqualified because it had travel ball players on its team.

“They had to dig deep,” Hogan said of his team. “We just kept

reminding them the different challenges they have gone through. We

kept reminding them that they could do it.”

While on the mound, Danny Moskovits also reminded himself of his

capabilities, and he did his best to avoid any distractions.

Moskovits pitched a complete game. Thanks to his teammates he

displayed some of his best stuff in the final two innings.

“I was just thinking that I had to throw as hard as I could,”

Moskovits said of his thoughts during the final two innings. “I was

trying to block out all the shouting from the other side. I just

blocked all of that out and focused on throwing to the glove. They

hit the ball, but my fielders played real well behind me.”

In the top of the sixth, Fontana, the designated visiting team,

scored a run to go up 3-2. With one out, the Fontana All-Stars then

loaded the bases. But, Newport ended Fontana’s rally and grabbed

momentum in the process.

With the bases loaded, Fontana’s Jordan Williams delivered a base

hit to shallow center field, but Adrian Rodriguez quickly made a long

accurate throw to Moskovits, who threw the ball to catcher Blake

Davey for the force out at the plate.

Time was stopped for a short while because Davey was injured on

the play, but he remained in the game. Moskovits got the next batter

to ground out with the bases loaded, and Newport’s parents and fans

cheered as their Bronco A All-Stars headed to their pivotal half of

the sixth inning.

“The whole team came through,” Hogan said. “Nick Svendsen opened

up that sixth inning with a double and really got us going. Ryan

Albert [a double and two RBIs] also stepped up and so did Adrian

Rodriguez.”

After Svendsen’s double and after a pop out, Rodriguez, known to

his teammates as “A-Rod,” delivered an RBI double off a full count.

Albert followed with a double, and then Jacob McCann came up with a

single, that moved Albert over to third base.

McCann’s single chased Fontana’s relief pitcher.