Ocean View rolls past Silverado, still undefeated

There was no quick start by Ocean View Wednesday against Silverado of Nevada, but a fast finish by the Majors All-Star team kept them undefeated in the 2011 Little League West Regional tournament at San Bernardino.

Ocean View broke away from a scoreless game by posting four runs in the bottom of the third inning, tacked on two more runs in the fourth and then put things out of reach with a five-run fifth, that led to an 11-3 victory over the state champs from Nevada at Al Houghton Stadium.

With the win, Ocean View completed pool play as the only undefeated team. In going 4-0, they outscored their opponents, 34-5.

Ocean View is the No. 1 seed in Friday’s semifinals and will face No. 4-seed Washington Little League of Utah (2-2) at 8 p.m. The day’s first semifinal pits No. 2-seed Red Bluff (Northern California, 2-2) against No. 3-seed Silverado (2-2). Ocean View has already defeated Red Bluff and Silverado in tournament play but didn’t play Washington.

The winners advance to the West Regional championship game at 6 p.m. Saturday. The final can be seen live at ESPN3.com.

Rio Rico of Arizona and Central Maui East of Hawaii both went 1-3 in pool play and were eliminated. Ocean View defeated both teams earlier in the week.

Ocean View had jumped on its first three tournament opponents (Red Bluff, Central East Maui, Rio Rico) by scoring multiple runs in the first inning in each of those three games, but didn’t get on the scoreboard Wednesday against Silverado until the third inning.

Justin Cianca and Dylan Palmer started the Ocean View half of the third inning with back-to-back singles and lead-off hitter Hagen Danner drove both runners home with a double to left field. Nick Pratto followed with another double to score Danner. Pratto went on to score on an infield error to make it 4-0.

Pratto led all hitters with a three-for-three day that included an RBI. Danner had two hits and drove in four runs. Braydon Salzman had a hit and two RBIs and Ryo Takada, Steven Kotkosky and Anthony Martinez each had a hit and RBI. Eric Anderson also singled.

Trevor Windisch recorded the pitching win. He and Pratto both pitched two-plus innings and Takada threw one inning.

Ocean View Manager Jeff Pratto said that Salzman, Danner or Nick Pratto would start on the mound Friday against Washington of Utah.