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Sports

Bats Come Alive to Power Loma Linda

Down 7-1 to start the fourth inning, Loma Linda Little League scores the next 16 runs for victory.

It could have been the inning to end the season for Loma Linda Little League.

Up 1-0 in the bottom of the second, Grand Terrace Little League had loaded the bases with no outs in Wednesday's elimination game of the 9- and 10-year-old division District 21 All-Star Tournament.

But after a strikeout and a force out at home, it looked as if starting pitcher Tyler Gianni was going to work out of the jam. But with a 1-2 count, Grand Terrace's Alex Watson hit a dribbler down the third base line that scored one, and opened the flood gates to a 6-run inning for Grand Terrace.

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Grand Terrace would add one more in the third inning to take a 7-1 lead.

But then, something happened in the visitor's dugout. Their bats woke up.

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Loma Linda sent 25 batters to the plate over the next two innings, pounding out 13 hits and scoring 16 times, as the tournament hosts went on to a 17-7 victory in five innings.

"Six runs isn't going to win a game with our hitting," said team manager Paul Gianni. "It's a lot of game left. And we're going to score a lot more than six. And we just needed to get our heads in the game. We were really flat."

But once Loma Linda woke up, they were tough to stop.

Jake Wear and A.J. Schumann started off the fourth scoring after a walk and single, repectively. Then Micah Payne greeted Grand Terrace reliever Watson by taking a trip around the bases on a four-base error.

Three batters later, Camden Possinger drilled a shot to the fence in left field for a two-run home run, and Wear, in his second at-bat in the inning, brought home two more with a single to give Loma Linda the lead for good.

"They hit the ball," said Grand Terrace manager Rober Bond. "Our pitcher didn't do anything wrong. They hit the ball, and he pitched the ball right -- he did his job. They were hitting it. We made a few errors out there. A couple of bad throws, bad decisions, and it cost us some extra runs."

Besides the home run, Possinger added a booming triple to lead off the game to his box score. Tyler Gianni was 2-for-3 with two runs scored, including a double that one-hopped the fence in left-center field. Besides his four-base error home run, Payne added a triple, which he scored on after an errant throw, on a 2-for-4 night.

Loma Linda advances to play Bloomington Little League in its second elimination game at 6 p.m. Thursday at Loma Linda Baseball Park.

In other Little League tournament news:

Loma Linda's girls softball team had its season end Wednesday night, losing in an elimination game, 15-4.

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