MAYOR’S CUP:Life is Grand for Stillman

COSTA MESA — With fresh memories of Tuesday’s 17-1 win resonating in their minds, members of the Costa Mesa National All-Stars team predicted victory for Wednesday night.

The sun illuminated the Mayor’s Cup trophy resting on a chair behind home plate, and Ben Beck of the National team told teammates it would be theirs in four innings.

It was a grand prediction. The team was hungry to notch their sixth Mayor’s Cup title and regain the cup from the American team, so hungry that they clobbered Costa Mesa American 29-0.

“It means a lot to National because American won like two years in a row,” said Ben Beck after he helped the National All-Stars defeat Costa Mesa American in game two of the best-of-three Major Division All-Stars Mayor’s Cup. “It’s just really good to win.”

The National team trumped their 17-run explosion from the previous night by erupting for 29 runs at Costa Mesa High. The National team now has a one-cup edge in the Mayor’s Cup series. Costa Mesa American has five cups. Jeff Carlyle, Matt Jarmacz and Dante Capoccia all hit grand slams.

Jesse Paz crushed a three-run homerun and Tyler Rios went back-to-back with a solo shot, giving the National team 16 runs off of five homeruns.

It was the first time Jarmacz had ever hit a home run, let alone a grand slam. Capoccia’s grand slam ball sailed over the right field fence and almost landed in Anaheim.

“It was cool because I hit it over two fences,” Capoccia said. “I knew [it was gone when I hit it] because it was really high.”

Aaron Wood pitched two innings of perfect baseball for the National team, notching four strikeouts. Trevor Borkowski pitched a perfect third and Chad Fackler pitched a perfect fourth inning. The game was then called because of the mercy rule.

Spectators shared laughs by the end of the game, as the umpires decided to lighten the mood.

When the National team started to hit in the top of the fourth inning, two players took over coaching duties at first and third base. The batters were in for a surprise though.

Wood was punched out looking on strikes and displayed a perplexed look of clear confusion. The strike that was thrown by American pitcher Josh Ring appeared to be out of the strike zone.

The energetic Beck then dug in at the dish and looked at the home plate umpire after another ball was called a strike. The umpire then started to laugh.

“I actually told him to widen the strike zone against us,” CMNLL Coach Rob Stillman said. “It was getting a little out of hand, so out of respect for their team I told him to call anything he could a strike.”

Ring is normally excited to pitch and is usually smiling. This time was no different.

“It was kinda funny [and] at the same time it was good,” Ring said. “You want strikes, but it was hilarious.”

American catcher Connor Howard was struck by a ball above the collar bone and left the game in the top of the third. American Coach Pat Axtell expects him to be OK.

Despite losing, Axtell didn’t hang his head.

“We’ve gotten to retain that Mayor’s Cup for the past two or three years so it’s OK,” Axtell said. “Next year we’ll come back stronger and get it back.”

The American kids finished the game to the best of their abilities. They echoed Axtell’s philosophy.

“[With] any team sport...it’s tough when you’re down or way down,” Axtell said. “Our whole emphasis isn’t to win, but to have fun. I like all the team spirit these kids have got and I’m just proud of each and every one of them.”

For the National team, Rios now has another homerun ball to add to his growing collection. He went 4-4 on the night with three RBI’s.

“Yeah I do [have a collection at home],” Rios said. “I have probably about six or seven [homerun balls].”

The National team displayed endless amounts of energy in each performance. Beck, a clear vocal leader of the team, constantly screamed enthusiastically from the dugout.

In the top of the fourth inning though, it was Borkowski who provided the National team with a laugh.

Dylan Tyler tried to reach third base after Borkowski doubled. Borkowski herded Tyler like a sheep, but Tyler was thrown out at third for the last out, in what was supposed to end the inning.

Borkowski decided to try to score and ran in a pickle with players from the American team. He was unsuccessful and tagged out for the fourth out of the inning.

“That was an exciting ending to the inning,” Stillman said. “Even [the American team] was kinda laughing about it.”

Stillman still feels disappointed about not advancing in the District Tournament.

“We got the Cup back, that’s a good thing,” Stillman said. “Maybe I got to reevaluate my coaching...maybe we should still be playing somewhere else instead of being done now, but they played hard and ran into a couple of tough pitchers in district. They did a good job every other game besides those two games. Those two games we fought hard and got edged out barely.”

National team: Trevor Borkowski, Ryan West, Jesse Paz, Tyler Rios, Jeff Carlyle, Aaron Wood, Ben Beck, Chad Fackler, Brad Wilson, Dylan Tyler, Levi Stillman, Dante Cappocia, Jake Stone, Matt Jarmacz.

American team: Aaron Axtell, Jack Holm, Josh Ring, Jeremy Peack, Cody Hanify, Idren Luna, Dirk Hill, Jesse Alba, Connor Howard, Jory Hartshorn.

JASON KORNFELD may be reached at (714) 966-4616 or at [email protected].