All-Stars Need Extra Innings, But Bring Home Win

Sam O'Melia could barely sleep because he was so excited, so ready to get to the mound on Sunday night at Jay Littleton Ball Park in Ontario and continue what has been a dominant summer for the Manhattan Beach Senior League All-Stars.

During a Western Regionals tournament where the Mustangs have averaged 13 runs a game and faced little resistance, it was a good thing they received a stellar effort from their starting pitcher.

O'Melia's six strong innings were desperately needed as the Mustangs narrowly won a 2-1 decision over tournament host Creekside Ranch in eight innings on a walk-off RBI single by Brett Clark.

"I was excited," O'Melia said. "They are aggressive with two strikes and my fastball was working well and the defense was solid. It was just disappointing that we had so much trouble finding our own offense." 

They did find enough of it at an opportune time, and it catapulted the Mustangs to a perfect 4-0 record and top seed coming out of Pool B – they will play Arizona, the No. 2 seed from Pool A, in a single-elimination semifinal on Monday at 7 p.m.

In the eighth inning, manager Carlos Rojas sent pinch-hitter Jackson Lipps to the plate hoping that his speed might ignite the dormant, but usually red-hot Mustangs' offense.

Lipps hit a grounder to second base and hustled down the line to leg out an infield single, then promptly stole second.  O'Melia put down an excellent sacrifice bunt moving Lipps to third, and Clark didn't waste any time as he drove an Aaron Bernal delivery into right field to drive in Lipps for the 2-1 victory.

Clark, the obvious hero, was quick to deflect attention. "Sam [O'Melia] did the important job, he moved the runner over and set me up to drive him home," he said.

His manager had faith in the Mustangs' No. 9 hitter, however.

"We could have gone to the squeeze, and we thought about it, but we wanted to give him one good swing of the bat, we knew he could do it and he made it look easy," Rojas said.

It looked like the Mustangs would be off and running early against Creekside Ranch as O'Melia had a dominant first inning, striking out two batters, and induced a double play to end the second. O'Melia would help his own cause with an RBI single in the second, bringing home Turner Conrad and giving the Mustangs a 1-0 lead.

But Creekside Ranch, brought in reliever Leo Hernandez, and he would quickly bring the Mustangs' offense to a halt as he struck out his first two batters and put together consecutive perfect innings of relief.

In the fourth, O'Melia encountered his first real difficulties of the evening. With two outs and two runners on, Shawn Sweeney hit a ball sharply on the ground that appeared to hit his teammate Bernal, which would have ended the inning. But after a lengthy discussion, the umpiring crew ruled that it had not touched the runner. 

With the bases loaded, O'Melia induced a ground ball that shortstop Austin Henning was unable to corral and Creekside Ranch evened the score.  O'Melia would get Chris Marquez to ground back to the mound to end the inning.

For the next three and a half innings, both teams would combine for only five base runners, as Creekside Ranch reliever Michael Brun would strike out five and Henning would provide two scoreless innings of relief for the Mustangs.

O'Melia struck out four, walking three and allowing two hits. Bret Collins singled in the first - he was one of only four Mustangs with a hit.

"I'm happy that we got the No. 1 seed. We know that not every game is going to be a big margin of victory. This is a team of adjustments and they did it again today, we were off balance, but did the small things and held tough," Rojas said.

Ryan Erickson, whose exceptional glove work prevented two hits, knows that the team still has a lot of work ahead of it.

"It's exhilarating to play against good competition and be in a tight game. We should have played better and we will have our work cut out for us the rest of the way," Erickson said.