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Lione All-Stars Light Up Wilton

The National Lione All-Stars of Stamford played lights out in defeating Wilton 9-1 Tuesday night in the District 1 Little League tournament. The game was called at 10:30 p.m. after lights high above Bill Terry Field in Wilton went dark for the second time in a 30-minute span. The first delay was human error. Umpires immediately ended the game in the top of the sixth after the second power failure. The cause of that outage was unclear.

"That was the longest game of my life,'' National Lione manager Bill DeVito said. The wait was worth it, however, as the victory propelled the Stamford team to Thursday's semifinals. It will meet city rival Springdale at 5:45 p.m. at Caprizzo Field.

National Lione struck early in Tuesday's victory, scoring six runs in the first inning. Facing a win-or-go home situation, the first seven batters reached base. Mike Nunziante delivered a two-run single and Joe DePreta blasted a grand slam over the center field fence. "They came out ready to play and swung the bats great,'' DeVito said.

Austin Nardi, who is 10-for-14 in the tournament with six home runs, smacked a two-run shot in the fourth. Nunziante started but suffered a leg injury running the bases and left after one inning. Jalen Brown came on and allowed three hits while fanning five over four innings.

The Stamford team has been a force in recent Little League tournaments. Two years ago as 10-year-olds, they won the district title. It went 5-0 in pool play last year before losing in the semifinals.

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