It got louder with each passing inning, as Red Land beat Southwest, 3-0, in the Little League World Series U.S. semifinals on Wednesday night to clinch a berth in Saturday’s championship game.
Advertisement
In the United States side of bracket, the team from Pearland, Texas facing Lewisberry, Pennsylvania for a place in the US Championship game on Saturday.
The Red Land Little League team is headed to the U.S. title game at the Little League World Series. Both will play Thursday – Venezuela against Mexico and Texas against California – for the other spots in Saturday’s U.S. and worldwide championship contests.
“I believe in the power of sport for social good”, Shirley said.
He seems to have the rare knack to crack up his players and laugh along with them but also to get them to play for him. Little League officials expect a record crowd of 41,000 fans set in 2011 to be threatened. In the biggest game of their lives, they were as cool as could be.
So if there’s one team that might be prepared for the pressure-cooker of playing in a packed Howard J. Lamade Stadium against the home-state favorite Red Land team – and 30,000 of their screaming fans – it’s Pearland.
“I kind of liked being the underdog today, it was fun”, Solomon said Sunday. A hit by pitch tied the game, and Yugo Aoki singled to right field to plate the game-winner. The dominant performance followed the most exciting games of the tournament, featuring two big comebacks and one pulsating win that sent the undefeated team from Tokyo to the title game of the global bracket. Wagner reached out on an 0-2 outside pitch and took it the opposite way, lining it over the left-field wall.
Capitol BlueCross made sure fans didn’t go hungry by packing healthy boxed lunches for them before they got on the buses.
Pearland ace Jarrett Tadlock managed to keep pace early, save for Wagner’s long ball and a first-inning RBI single by Henline, who collected a team-high two hits. The Tokyo players felt fortunate to get that chance to pull even. “Their (starting) pitcher was the best I’ve ever seen”, Tomita said.
Advertisement
Tokoyo piled up a pair of doubles, a single, an intentional walk and a hit-by-pitch that forced in the tying run with one out.
