Morgan Hill’s run at the Muistang-9 West Zone Tournament in
Walnut has begun similarly to last year’s Pinto World Series —
with the locals facing elimination early
WALNUT
Morgan Hill’s run at the Mustang-9 West Zone Tournament in Walnut has begun similarly to last year’s Pinto World Series — with the locals facing elimination early.
The Central Region champs drew Corona, a “typical L.A. travel-ball team,” as Morgan Hill manager Vince LaGatta put it, for its opener Thursday at Creekside Park and was on its heels for most of an 8-4 loss.
“I thought we matched up well with them. I thought our kids were just a little jittery,” LaGatta said. “We fell behind early, battled back with some good baseball, and it just didn’t work out.
“Corona was a decent team. We’ll just have to regroup.”
Corona led 3-0 after the first inning and pushed ahead with three more runs in the third, after Morgan Hill scored twice in the top half, and two for good measure in the fifth.
Vinnie LaGatta and Jonathan Singleton accounted for all of Morgan Hill’s runs in the third and sixth innings, with LaGatta scoring on a passed ball and a Gio Saso groundout, respectively, and Singleton scoring on a fielder’s choice and a single by Tommy Troy. Singleton had two hits.
Will Ansbro pitched the first two innings for Morgan Hill, followed by Cory Taylor who worked the third and fourth, and Singleton who pitched the fifth.
“We don’t really need to change anything,” Vince LaGatta said. “We got here with our strengths, and we’re not going to panic and overreact. We’ve lost games before, and we’ve been able to rebound. We have our first-game jitters out of the way. We’ll be more focused and more ready, I think.”
Coming off their first 0-1 start in tournament play since the 2010 Pinto World Series, Morgan Hill faces La Canada at 5 p.m. Friday in the losers’ bracket.
Morgan Hill rebounded well from that opening loss a year ago at Worlds, winning back-to-back elimination games to clinch a top-four finish in California. Now they face another Los Angeles-area club in La Canada, which lost 16-3 to Mid Valley on Thursday.
The winner plays at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
“They’re going to be solid,” Vince LaGatta said. “Hopefully we put forth a good effort. No one is insurmountable.”
