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West Side stays alive with comeback win over Michigan in Great Lakes Region tournament

Aug. 9—West Side Little League lived to play another day Monday with a mighty combeack in the Great Lakes Region tournament.

West Side rallied from a 5-0 deficit to score an 8-6 win over Grosse Pointe Farms-City Little League in an elimination game in Whitestown, Ind.

Jaxson Bohlen had three RBIs and sealed the game on the mound for West Side, which advances to face the loser of Monday night's Indiana-Kentucky game at 3 p.m. Tuesday. The region championship game is at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN.

The winner of the Great Lakes Region — West Side, Indiana or Kentucky — advances to the Little League World Series Aug. 17-28 in Williamsport, Pa. West Side lost in the Little League World Series championship game last year.

On Monday, Michigan scored single runs in the first and second and three in the third to take a 5-0 lead.

West Side answered with three runs in its half of the third on five straight hits — Timmy Saurber, Sammy Platt, Maddox Jones, Bohlen and Carter Jackson — to make it 5-3. Jones drove in a pair with a double and Bohlen plated a run with a single.

After Michigan scored a run in the top of the fourth to make it 6-3, West Side exploded for five in the bottom of the frame.

Blake Sams started the rally with a lead-off triple. He scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-4. Bohlen's two-run single tied the game. Jones scored on a wild pitch to give West Side its first lead, 7-6. Jackson's RBI single capped the five-run frame.

Bohlen then close the door on Michigan, which had scored in each of the first four innings. The right-hander allowed just one hit over 2 2/3 innings of relief work.

Bohlen and Jackson both finished 2-for-3 and Cash Brown scored a pair of runs and had an RBI.

West Side lost to Kentucky 7-6 on Sunday to open the Great Lakes Region tourney.

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