M-E also became the first team from NY to win a Little League World Series title since Mid-Island – a team from Staten Island – did so in 1964. After combining for 17 runs in their last two games, New York’s pitching led the way to victory. Having knocked off a powerful Kentucky team that run-ruled two opponents, and then Tennessee twice, the New Yorkers brought the championship back to the United States for the first time since Huntington Beach, California won (also by the score of 2-1) back in 2011 over Japan.
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ABC will air the 2016 Little League World Series Championship Game at promptly 3:00 PM ET on Sunday.
Junho Jeong was the game’s losing pitcher, despite giving up just three hits, not walking a batter, and fanning nine in four innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, Jude Abbadessa lined a one-out single, and he went to third on Harlost’s single up the middle. The last team from NY to win the title came from Staten Island in 1964.
“After the game I gave him a big hug and said, ‘You are something else, ‘” Hale told him, according to the Little League World Series website.
Yoomin Lee homered in the fifth to give South Korea its run and close the gap to 2-1.
For the first time in five years, a USA team is the champion of the Little League baseball world.
The team from Broome County is the first team from Upstate New York to make the Little League World Series in almost 40 years.
Waking to the plate as Endwell fans along the first base side bellowed “Juuude!”
NY fell to eventual World Series runner-up Red Land in the Mid-Atlantic Region final past year. Minho Choi struck out with runners on first and second to end the game. Abbadessa broke up the righty’s no-hit bid with a single to center.
“It’s just the best”, Harlot said in a LLWS release.
James Fellows came through for NY with just his fifth hit of the tournament on Saturday but he leads the team with an on base percentage of.700 and is hitting a team-best.625 with 10 plate appearances. Harlost’s precision and a stingy NY defense prevented further damage. With a runner on first an inning later, Harlost snagged a hard-hit liner at the mound, tossed to first to get the putout and escape the third unscathed. “I’m really proud of my team”.
“I’m just here watch them, and they did really good”, said Ryan Thompson, who pitches for the Keystone Little League team in Lock Haven.
The New York players said Saturday that they knew they had a great team as soon as they reconvened earlier this summer.
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“One thing I’ll say about this team, when we started the all-star season, we said you guys are all the best kids on your regular-season teams, you’re all the shortstops and the No. 4 hitters”, said coach Rush, whose squad became the first USA team to win a world title since Huntington, Calif., in 2011.
