Saroyan comes up huge

LAGUNA NIGUEL — The first announcement from the public address announcer catching everyone’s attention came in the second inning.

A tree was about to crash onto two cars in the parking lot.

Everyone watching the Little League Majors All-Stars District 55 Tournament game between Newport Beach American and Central Irvine listened up.

Newport Beach American pitcher Jeff Saroyan stopped throwing.

One inning later, another tree announcement, and this time the tree landed.

Saroyan just wanted to keep pitching and get his team out of Thursday’s loser-out game. Enough of the bad news already at Laguna Niguel’s Chapparosa Community Park.

Saroyan changed that in the bottom of the sixth inning, hitting a laser over the left-field fence for a walk-off home run to lead Newport Beach American to a 4-3 victory.

There was no need to announce that Saroyan had just kept Newport Beach American’s season alive as it plays Saturday at 4 p.m. in another elimination game.

“”That was really cool,” Saroyan said “I feel just astounded, just because we were able to stay in the game and keep concentrating on the game and not get down on ourselves, because at one point we were down, 3-1, going into the fourth.”

Newport Beach American battled back against a formidable pitcher in Abner Rodriguez. The crowd chanted “A-Rod” whenever he threw a pitch or swung the bat. For good reason, too.

Hunter Heckendron made sure the noise ended in the top of the sixth.

He came in relief after seeing his teammates score two runs in the fifth to tie the game, 3-3. Timely hitting with two outs, starting with Nick Roco and Jackson Pries, who each drove in runs.

With runners on the corners, Rodriguez came up with two outs. Heckendron went right after him, throwing three strikes before missing. The next pitch, he got Rodriguez to pop up, and he chased it down, crashing with Pries near the visitor’s dugout.

Heckendron held on, lifting his glove to show the umpires he made the catch even though Pries collided with him so hard that the umpires couldn’t believe the ball didn’t pop out.

“It was like getting hit by a machine,” Heckendron said.

The pain was worth it.

Relieving it was what he saw a couple of minutes later.

Saroyan led off and didn’t waste much time. He pulled a fastball, not knowing how hard he hit he just continued to hustle around the bases like he was going for a double or triple.

Once it went over, he continued to scoot, not wasting any time to get swarmed by his team waiting for him at home plate to celebrate.

“It’s just fun for the kids,” said Newport Beach American Coach Bill Worden. “A walk-off home run is something you don’t see that often in Little League.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-612 or at [email protected].