Pennsylvania advances to title game
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT – Chayton Krauss hit an RBI single to right field in the bottom of the sixth inning to give Lewisberry a 3-2 victory over Pearland, Texas, Saturday for a berth in the Little League World Series championship game in front of a record crowd of almost 46,000 fans.
Krauss drove in Braden Kolmansberger, who walked and moved to third on Jaden Henline’s one-out single.
“It felt awesome and it was amazing to get that hit and it felt great,” he said. “I just remember that he had a decent fastball and decent curveball and I got a fastball and just drilled it.”
Cole Wagner struck out 11 over 5 2/3 innings and hit a home run from the undefeated Red Land Little League team, which draws from Lewisberry and several other towns that are just a two-hour drive from Williamsport.
Lewisberry will play undefeated Tokyo for the World Series championship Sunday. Tokyo beat Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, 1-0 in seven innings earlier Saturday for the international title.
The crowd of 45,716 began lining up for the game at 6 a.m. for the 3:30 p.m. start. They quickly filled the large hill behind the outfield fence, leaving only a small patch behind a television tower for kids to participate in the traditional hill sliding on cardboard sheets. Dozens were left to peer through a parking lot fence above the hill.
Wagner opened the scoring with an opposite-field homer in the bottom of the first inning, before Texas used some timely base running to tie the score in the second.
Zack Mack doubled and Tristen Schwehr singled to put runners on first and third. Pinch runner Raffi Gross scored when Schwehr stole second base and the throw to second careened off Wagner’s glove as he tried to cut it off.
The Pearland team took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Marco Gutierrez doubled to right-center field. That scored Mack, who came all the way around from first base after walking.
Henline, who had a walk-off double against California earlier in the tournament, hit a home run into the sea of screaming Red Land fans sitting behind the right-field wall to tie the it at 2 in the bottom of the fourth.
Wagner received a standing ovation when he came out after striking out the first two batters in the sixth inning and reaching the 85 pitch limit. The 12-year-old lefty struck out 11 and threw 59 strikes before being replaced by Henline, who got Mack to pop out.
Ryan Farmer threw five innings for Texas, whose three top pitchers were unavailable after being used to make it through the losers bracket, after falling to Lewisberry 3-0 earlier this week.
Farmer, mixing some off-speed stuff with his fastball, struck out six and gave up just two hits, the Pennsylvania home runs.
He was replaced by Gutierrez after walking Kolmansberger to open the sixth. Gutierrez struck out Wagner, who came into the game batting .625 for the series, before giving up the back-to-back hits to Henline and Krauss.
This was Pearland’s third trip to the Little League World Series since 2010. All three times, it lost to the eventual U.S. champions.
A Pennsylvania team had not won the U.S. title since a team from Shippensburg did it in 1990 and has not won the World Series title since Levittown accomplished that feat in 1960.
Japan 1, Mexico 0: Yugo Aoki singled for Tokyo’s first hit in the seventh inning, and then scored on a fielder’s choice to help Japan beat Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico 1-0 on Saturday for a spot in the championship game of the Little League World Series.
The run came home when Mexico was unable to turn a double play on a bases-loaded ground ball up the middle by Koki Jo. It was the only offense during an impressive pitching performance for Japan’s Kabu Kikuchi and Mexico’s Armando Verdugo.
Kikuchi gave up just four hits while striking out 10 batters, while Verdugo also struck out 10 and gave up just two hits, both in the extra frame.
Tokyo also beat the Mexican team 3-1 early in the tournament.