Villa Park Hits Its Stride Late

For the first three innings of Monday’s baseball game between Villa Park and Taylorsville (Utah), it was difficult to decide which home run was more unusual. The one allowed by Villa Park’s Mark Trumbo or the one taken away from teammate Nathan Bridges.

Fortunately for the Spartans, ranked No. 1 in the Southland by The Times, neither ended up affecting the outcome of the first-round game of the National Classic. That’s because Villa Park rallied from a three-run deficit by scoring seven runs in its last two-at bats to defeat the defending tournament champions, 8-4, at Placentia El Dorado.

Trumbo (7-1) gave the Spartans (12-1) a 1-0 lead with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the first inning, but gave up the solo home run to Taylorsville catcher Kyle Loader in the second, the first he has allowed this season. Bridges appeared to hit a two-run home run in the third, but a balk had been called, resulting in a dead ball. Bridges later doubled in a run and hit a three-run homer.

-- Dan Arritt

*

West Hills Chaminade senior Chris Lopez (3-1) allowed only three hits and struck out six in six innings in a 6-0 victory over No. 5 Lakewood (14-4) in a pool-play game of the La Palma Kennedy tournament at Anaheim Boysen Park. Chaminade improved to 10-5-1.

-- Bob Rohwer

Softball

Garden Grove Pacifica, ranked second in the Southland and second in the state, needed extra innings for the third time in three games to win in the Irvine Woodbridge Classic. Ashley Watson squeezed home one run, and freshman Stephanie Ochoa drove in another to give No. 2 Pacifica a 2-1 victory over No. 5 Corona in a tournament quarterfinal at Col. Bill Barber Park.

The game was decided using an international tiebreaker.

Pacifica (18-2) will play Newhall Hart in a semifinal at noon Saturday, after Hart (7-6-1) upset No. 7 Lake Forest El Toro, 1-0, on Robyn Kontra’s four-hitter and Amanda Sreden’s RBI grounder in the second inning.

The other semifinal, at 2 p.m., pits Woodbridge, a 3-2 winner over West Covina, against No. 17 Thousand Oaks, which struck out 18 times against Fountain Valley pitcher Nicole LaPier, but finally scored in the bottom of the 10th inning on Kelly Cordeiro’s single, also using the tiebreaker, for a 1-0 victory.

The championship game is Saturday at 8 p.m.

Kevin Tantlinger, Palmdale Highland assistant coach, underwent brain surgery Wednesday at UCLA Medical Center.

Tantlinger suffers from a rare, often slow-growing but unpredictable cancer called adenoid cystic carcinoma, which shows a strong resistance to chemotherapy drugs.

Tantlinger is expected to need six months to recover.

-- Martin Henderson