Texas puts on home run show at LLWS
Connecticut tops Auburn, Wash., in opener
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Jake Orlando hit two blasts and Blake Toler’s solo shot in the first set the tone for the mini-mashers from Pearland, Texas, in a 10-8 win Friday over Plymouth, Minn., to get the Little League World Series off to a homer-happy start.
The 13-year-old Orlando finished 4 for 4 with five RBIs.
“I would be super-excited to just come up here and watch games, but to play them is 1,000 times better,” Orlando said.
Texas hit four home runs and had 12 hits, an offensive barrage in sharp contrast to the crisp pitchers’ duel in Friday’s first game, when Fairfield, Conn., beat Auburn, Wash., 3-1, on Jack Quinn’s tie-breaking two-run double in the fifth.
Manati, Puerto Rico, defeated Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, 11-0, while Tokyo beat Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 4-2 after Ginga Maruoka smacked a three-run homer with two outs in the top of the sixth.
After several days of practice, public appearances and media interviews, the antsy Little Leaguers finally got to play baseball Friday.
Three hitters after Toler’s first-inning homer, Orlando hit a towering fly that easily cleared the hedges beyond the 225-foot wall to give Texas a 3-0 lead. They tacked on five more runs in the second.
Starter Mason Van Noort was in control on the mound with five strikeouts over 21/3 no-hit innings, but was lifted in the third to limit his pitch count.
Minnesota broke through against wild Texas relief pitching. Five relievers combined for eight walks and three hits for eight runs, and Minnesota’s Colin Quinn’s grand slam with two outs in the sixth got his team within 10-8 before Pryce Beshoory got a strikeout to end the game.
Nate Klein scored Connecticut’s first run in the bottom of the second inning of the opener before making a nice catch to his left at third base on a line drive to save a possible extra-base hit. Klein finished 2 for 3.
The game also had the first manager’s replay challenge, a new wrinkle for this year’s tournament. Washington skipper Kai Nahaku lost the challenge after disputing an out call at home that would have given his team the lead.