Angels blank Red Sox

Ocean View Little League Commissioner Steph Green had to dig deep into her bag of tricks to ensure clear skies over Huntington Beach as OVLL hosted Opening Day one week late. The rain let up just long enough to squeeze in three games, which featured pitching, pitching and more pitching.

The second game of the day pitted the Angels’ Logan Pouelsen against the Red Sox’s Michael Gates in a pitchers’ duel that will be remembered for some time. Pouelsen struck out 15 and walked only one batter as he overwhelmed the opposing batters, leading his team to a 2-0 victory.

The Angels jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Nolan Strout singled up the middle to score Ben Meyers from second. Other notable hits were a triple from Pouelsen and a hard single up the middle from Matthew Rolfes. On the defensive side, catcher Michael Green fired a bullet to shortstop Tommy Kemp to catch Gates attempting a steal of second. Kemp made a perfect tag at the base to wrap up the fifth inning.

The Angels’ game ball went to Dylan Chennault, who fielded two of the three balls put into play by the Red Sox. Chennault fielded both hits cleanly and made perfect throws to first to help push the Angels to their first win of the season.

— Kim Hathcock, Community Correspondent

In other Ocean View Little League action:

Majors Division

Dodgers 3, A’s 2: Veteran OVLL pitchers Steven Cotton (A’s) and Hunter Jackson (Dodgers) battled it out Sunday afternoon in their opening game of the season. Scoreless after three innings, the A’s put two runs across on passed balls. Cotton held the Dodgers scoreless, allowing only three hits by Nick Pratto, Hunter Jackson and Ricky Martinez. Down, but never out, the Dodgers came alive in the sixth inning. Starting with a pivotal single to right field by Joey Durbin, Blake Richardson came to bat with two outs and a full-count ending in a walk.

With two on, Braydon Salzman blistered a triple to the fence to score two runs. Pratto followed suit with another screamer to center to score Salzman. Salzman closed out Jackson’s pitching efforts by retiring the A’s in the last of the sixth.

— Cathy Jackson, Community Correspondent

Minor A Division

Hot Rods 11 Knights 6: The Hot Rods pulled out to an early lead, hitting consistently in the early innings. The Knights narrowed the gap on several occasions, but were unable close it completely.