Gorman wastes early lead, faces elimination game in Legion regional

Through four innings Saturday night, Bishop Gorman’s American Legion baseball team was paving a smooth road to the Western Regional final in Fairfield, Calif.

Then the Titans ran into a big detour.

Fairfield stormed back from a 4-0 fourth-inning deficit to stun the Titans 8-5 in a battle between the only remaining unbeaten teams in the double-elimination tournament.

Fairfield is guaranteed a spot in the title game Monday for the right to play in the American Legion World Series next week in Shelby, N.C.

Gorman (44-9-1) must win today and twice Monday to earn the World Series berth.

The Titans are scheduled to face Fort Collins (Colo.) or League City (Texas) in an elimination game at noon Sunday.

Gorman was cruising through four innings, with starter Johnny Sewald facing the minimum 12 batters and allowing one hit.

Sewald’s teammates gave him early run support, scoring once in each of the first two innings and twice in the third. Gorman compiled eight hits in the first three innings.

Erik Van Meetren’s sacrifice fly scored Tyler Baker with the first run and Justin Jones added a two-out RBI single in the second. In the third, Van Meetren singled home a run and later scored on an error.

But Fairfield starter Nicolas Smart shut down the Titans. He didn’t allow another Titans hit until the eighth inning, giving his offense plenty of time to come to the rescue.

Jonathan Gutierrez’s two-out RBI single in the fifth triggered the comeback, and Fairfield added four more runs — three on two-out hits — in the sixth and scored twice in the seventh.

Gorman put two runners on base in the eighth, but after allowing a sacrifice fly, reliever Mitchell Gonzalves picked off the runner at first to end the threat. He got Van Meetren to fly out with two on in the ninth to end the game.