After a few weeks of no games and a lot of practice, the Long Beach PONY team was chomping at the bit to get back between the lines and defend their World Championship. Unfortunately for Santa Monica, they took out all that pent-up energy at the plate in the first inning. Long Beach posted six quick runs in the top of the first frame on the way to a 21-0 mercy rule victory at Whaley Park last night.
The five-inning win is the only mercy rule of the Sectional Tournament after three days of play.
“That went as well as it could have gone,” said Long Beach manager Ken Jakemer. “We were swinging the bat well, got our pitchers some innings, got everyone in the game… right now we’re just figuring out how we all fit. This team was excited to come out and show what it could do.”
The offense wasted no time showing off with the six spot in the first, and the bench players came in and added eight in the fourth inning. This team is deep and can hit the ball like last year’s team did (11 different players recorded a hit) but this team is a lot faster.
Leadoff hitter Jonathan Pasillas sets the tone for Long Beach and last night he stole five bags and scored three times. First baseman Britt Barmeyer drove in Pasillas two of those times, and added a double.
On the mound Jordan Ybarra battled control (5 BB, 5 Ks) but didn’t give up a hit until the third inning. He also had two hits. Yusef Davis and Nick Byers each pitched a scoreless inning after Ybarra came out to preserve the shutout.
The only problem Jakemer had last night was having too much talent on the roster, if you can call that a problem.
“All these kids are All-Stars. They aren’t used to sitting on the bench. We all have to learn how to be good teammates, take a seat when you have to and get behind the other guys… that is our number one priority right now, everyone has to be pulling in the same direction.”
Long Beach won’t have much time to practice that all important tug-of-war as they will take on a tough Lynwood team at 3pm on Saturday. Lynwood surprised Norwalk earlier in the day, 7-2, holding the normally strong Norwalk team scoreless until the final frame.
“If we hit the ball like we did tonight, we’ll be happy at the end of the day when we look at the scoreboard,” said Jakemer.
Come out tonight to Whaley Park at 7:30pm to see Heartwell take on Redondo Sunset. The winner of that game will play Saturday after the Long Beach game.