West Leads, 3-0, in Third-Round Legion Contest

UNION CITY, Calif. —  Watching a seemingly endless game between New Mexico and Utah on Friday night, Woodland Hills West right-hander Corey Bromberg uttered what was meant to be a joke.

After New Mexico had taken a two-run lead in the top of the 13th inning and a Utah batter had come up with a man on, Bromberg--waiting to start West’s third-round game in the American Legion Southwest regional tournament--said:

“If this kid hits it out, I’m not pitching.”

Boom. Gone. The home run delayed the start of West’s game against host Union City until 10:22 p.m.

At press time, West held a 3-0 lead with Union City batting against Bromberg with one out in the top of the fourth inning.

A loss would have sent West into an elimination game against Hawaii at 4 p.m. today. Hawaii, which trailed, 10-0, at one point, rallied to defeat Arizona, 17-16, Friday afternoon.

A victory would have guaranteed West a berth in Sunday’s final round. West, which would have improved to 3-0 in the double-elimination tournament with a victory late Friday, would play a 7 p.m. game with New Mexico today.

In an elimination game that lasted 5 hours 20 minutes, New Mexico defeated Utah, 14-10, in 16 innings.

West scored a run without a hit in the bottom of the first on consecutive walks to Paul Geller, Jeff Marks and Del Marine and a sacrifice fly by Bobby Kim.

West again loaded the bases against Union City right-hander Bob Pailthorpe in the third and got more mileage out of this threat than it did in the first.

With one out, Marine singled to left on an 0-2 pitch and moved to second when Union City third baseman Jeff Borges bobbled Jason Cohen’s grounder in the hole. Kim worked out of an 0-2 hole to draw a walk, loading the bases.

Right fielder Greg Lederman, who jokingly has started referring to himself as “Stickman,” drove in Marine and Cohen with a line single to right field to give West a 3-0 lead.

Through three innings, Bromberg had allowed three baserunners, one via a base hit and two because of infield errors.