Bloomington Pitchers End Loma Linda's Season

Pitching and defense are cornerstones for championship teams.

Thursday night, Bloomington Little League's team had plenty of both.

Four Bloomington pitchers combined to strike out eight Loma Linda batters, limiting the home team to six hits for a 16-2 victory in an elimination game in the District 21 9- and 10-year-old All-Star Tournament.

Loma Linda actually got on the board first, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Elias Ramirez singled, then scored when Tyler Gianni reached on a two-base error. A.J. Schumann knocked home Gianni to plate run number two.

But that was it. And where Bloomington's defense and pitching settled down, the mistakes that haunted Loma Linda in previous games came back Thursday night.

"It's kind of disappointing, because I thought we'd have one game where we would be able to make plays without errors," said Loma Linda manager Paul Gianni. "We must have averaged 10-15 errors a game. You're not going to beat good teams. And that team is very well coached."

And it didn't help that Loma Linda gotten itself into pitching troubles. Little League regulations limit the amount of pitches a player may make in a game, and how much rest they must have in between outings.

"We were down to our number five and six pitcher, so, that kind of hurt," Gianni said.

And Bloomington was able to take advantage. They only had nine hits, but walked six times, reached on four errors and had a hit batsman. They sent 24 batters to the plate in the second and third innings, scoring 15 of their runs.

Meanwhile, the Bloomington pitching staff and defense was shutting down Loma Linda. Cesar Sanchez pitched 1 1/3 innings, throwing 20 pitches, 18 of them for strikes.

The strong pitching and defense helped Bloomington manager Manuel Soto keep his pitching staff fresh and eligible to pitch again Friday.

"We played the game by ear, according to the scoreboard," he said. "Twenty pitches made sense with us having to come back tomorrow."

Soto was also impressed with second reliever Joseph Ramos, who had struggled in his last outing. Ramos struck out all four batters he faced, and had an no ball, two strike count on his fifth batter when he was pulled at 20 total pitches.

"He really struggled in the game that he pitched two games ago," Soto said. "And actually in practice, I don't think he was sure he wanted to throw. We had a talk yesterday, and today its Ramos-time."

It was also Ramos-time at the plate. He was 4-for-4 with two doubles and five runs batted in. Starting pitcher Joe Castillo added three runs scored on a 2-for-4 day at the plate.

Loma Linda, meanwhile, couldn't get their bats going again. Camden Possinger had a leadoff double in the first inning, but was erased trying to stretch it into a triple.

"You got to hand it to them, those little guys are making all the plays and they were doing what they had to do," Gianni said. "They're a good little team."

Action will continue in the District 21 tournament today with an elimination game, before taking the weekend off for the holiday, and resuming with the championship game Tuesday.

Loma Linda's final team will begin play in its tournament Tuesday. The Little League Division team, for 11- and 12-year-olds, will play Bloomington Little League at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Max Lofy Park in Colton, 351 E. E St.

Loma Linda Little League will also serve as host for the Division III tournament for the 9- and 10-year-old division, with play starting with two games July 17. The league is seeking volunteers who can help with the tournament, which will run July 17-21 at Loma Linda Baseball Park. For information, visit the league's website.