La Mesa Little League Turns Near Defeat To Victory vs. Oceanside

Following quickly on the heels of their District championship, the La Mesa National Little League 11-12 All-Stars played a hard fought game against the Oceanside All-Stars in the first game of Sectional playoffs.  The games are hosted by the Rancho Buena Vista baseball complex in Vista.

For the first two innings, it was a very close game, with La Mesa only scoring a single run.  La Mesa soon took off though, with strong base hits and two solo home runs from Eric Smelko and Matthew Chesnut.  By the bottom of the 5^th inning, the score was La Mesa  6, Oceanside 0.

Facing defeat, Oceanside rallied and began driving in runs, including two powerful homers of their own.  At the top of the 6^th inning, the score had flipped to Oceanside 7, La Mesa 6.

Now themselves in danger of losing, La Mesa saw in quick succession, a strikeout and runner put out at first.  The next batter, Austin Odom, stepped up and quickly faced two strikes in the count.  Two outs, one run down, two strikes; it’s the kind of pressure which could rattle even Major League players.  Odom, however, kept his focus and after some additional foul balls, powered a homer well over the fence to tie the score 7-7.

Keeping the rally going, the next La Mesa batter, Jackson Hulett, hit to deep center and sprinted the bases to slide safely to a scoring position at third base.  Nate Sherrod brought Hulett home on a single, once again giving the lead to La Mesa 8-7.  After an additional La Mesa out, Oceanside attempted bring in more runs, but a combination of focused pitching from Matthew Chesnut and tight infield defense sealed the La Mesa victory.

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