Gardner-Ford home run derby just starting

Mitch Gardner and Brian Ford love the long ball. It’s a love affair the Newport Harbor Baseball Assn. 14-year-old All-Stars plan to maintain at least four more years in the Corona del Mar High baseball program.

Gardner, a slick-fielding shortstop, and Ford, a fleet-footed center fielder and leadoff hitter, helped the NHBA squad win two postseason tournaments and finish 16-4 in all-star competition this season.

The two gregarious teenagers were eager to point out the results of their one-on-one home-run derby after a 10-1 loss Sunday to host Los Alamitos in the championship game of the Los Alamitos Invitational. The loss ended the season for the team of 14-year-olds, which, contrary to other NHBA All-Star teams, does not compete in the district tournament.

Gardner and Ford, however, don’t plan to stop competing, after Ford earned a slight advantage this season.

The two competed under a points system this season that awarded two points for a home run in a game and one point for one hit in practice. One complication calls for any ball that would have gone out at the Corona del Mar Pony League field to be ruled a home run, even if it failed to clear the outfield barrier at another venue.

The two had to agree on such determinations, which, both admitted, tended to create some conversational conflict.

Ford hit two dingers in games to Gardner’s one and both finished with five jacks in practice.

Ford and Gardner said they plan to continue to keep score throughout high school, a period lengthy enough to allow them to come up with a worthy and mutually-agreed-upon overall prize.

For now, however, mere bragging rights are the spoils of victory.

And judging from their good-natured banter after Sunday’s game, the topic just might come up a time or two before next season.

— Barry Faulkner