Louisiana team keeps 'foot on the gas' to stay alive in Little League World Series
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — What began as a blowout turned into a nailbiter down the stretch, but Louisiana managed to hold off a charge from Pennsylvania to stay alive with a 5-3 victory in the Little League Baseball World Series on Saturday night.
Louisiana faces another elimination game on Monday (4 p.m., ESPN2) against the loser of Sunday's game between Ohio and California.
After falling to South Dakota and star pitcher Gavin Weir on a combined no-hitter Friday, Louisiana showed some resiliency 24 hours later. Isaac Boudreaux led the charge, striking out two batters in the top of the first inning, then crushing a double that brought home Landyn Craft in his first at-bat.
“Gavin Weir is a great pitcher, but I think we didn’t play tight (against South Dakota),” said Louisiana centerfielder Cooper Hawkins. “We could have done a lot better than we did that night, and tonight it showed.”
Craft’s first run triggered a scoring spree for the squad from Lafayette. First baseman Nick Brown also scored to make it 2-0 in the first
Craft knocked in catcher Sammy Watkins for a run in the third to make it 3-0.
Brown made it 4-0 in the third and did most of the work. He safely laid down a bunt to reach first, stole second, and a wild pitch allowed him to advance to third. Hawkins then delivered a single to bring Brown home.
“Our coach teaches us to keep our foot on the gas,” Hawkins said. “Just if we're winning, keep winning. Don't let off the gas.”
The momentum began to turn against Louisiana in the fourth when Jaden Bowman hit a triple to right field, which was followed by a home run into the Lamade Stadium hill by pitcher Sam Buckley.
“Jalen is our leader; we go as he goes, so once he was standing on third, I knew the momentum would change,” said Pennsylvania manager Ben Ludwig. “The crowd was going wild. We had people on the hill, we had people in the stands. I give a lot of credit to the Louisiana coaches and kids, because they buckled down and got it done. When we were swinging good bats there at the end, they made some great plays.”
Brown capped off a phenomenal performance by scoring another critical run in the fifth. He took advantage of a Hawkins double and made it all the way from first to widen the lead to 5-2.
“We knew we were gonna win the game since yesterday,” Craft said. “We never quit. We never quit at all. We keep playing until the game's over, to the last pitch.”
Pennsylvania made an admirable final stand in the sixth, again started by a big hit from Bowman. He crushed a double into the left field wall and scored on a pop fly single by Tommy Sergio that dropped after a miscommunication between the Louisiana outfielders. However, Pennsylvania couldn't complete the rally with the winning run at the plate as a harmless grounder was fielded at first by Brown for the final out of the game.
“This was basically a home game for Pennsylvania. This is the most people I've seen on the hill all week, and it's just the high pressure moment but we've been battle-tested in states, in Waco (Texas),” said Louisiana manager Steven Menard. “We've played some really good teams and in front of a lot of people, especially playing against Eastbank in the state tournament, so I feel like that kind of help battle-test us for games like this here.”
Fighting through the losers bracket is a familiar position for Louisiana. In 2019, Eastbank lost to Hawaii in the opening round of the tournament, then managed to win their way to the end of the U.S. bracket and redeemed the early loss by beating that same Hawaii team to make the final. Menard said he spoke to Eastbank’s manager Todd Frazier after his team’s loss to South Dakota.
“Scott and I talked last night, just reassuring us that it happened to them last year, they dropped that first one, and made their way through,” he said. “Scott and I've been friends since ‘16 and coached against each other a bunch. He let me know that this is not over and we’ve got a lot of work left to do.”