SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The boys from Billings have the perfect excuse to miss the start of school Wednesday back home in Montana — they keep winning at the Little League World Series.
Patrick Zimmer tossed five shutout innings and Ben Askelson hit a two-out, two-run single in a 3-1 win over Lafayette, La., on Sunday that kept the Northwest region champs undefeated in South Williamsport.
It’s not a bad start for the first team from Montana to qualify for youth baseball’s biggest tournament, even though the players didn’t think they would get here.
“We were just kind of hoping to make it” to the regional tournament, said Ian Leatherberry, 12, who added an insurance run in the sixth with a two-out, RBI double. “That was our ultimate goal, and then we got even farther.”
School begins this week, and if everything breaks right, they might miss even more classes if they advance to the championship game Aug. 28.
Are the players disappointed they won’t be in school? Zimmer, Askelson, Leatherberry and closer Sean Jones immediately responded in unison with an emphatic “No!”
In the other early game Sunday, Yonny Hernandez hit two homers and three pitchers combined for a shutout to help Maracay, Venezuela, stay unbeaten with an 8-0 win over Langley, British Columbia.
Huntington Beach, Calif., pounded out 12 hits in routing LaGrange, Ky., 10-0 later Sunday, with Mexicali, Mexico beating Hamamatsu City, Japan, 3-2 in seven innings in the nightcap on Bruno Ruiz’s two-out RBI single.
Hagen Danner and Nick Pratto combined to two-hit Kentucky over four innings before the game was called due to Little League’s 10-run rule. Pratto and Ryo Takeda each knocked in two runs to lead the way.
Jacob Bates and Zach Nicholas had Kentucky’s hits, but afterward Kentucky manager Brad Bates was impressed by California’s mini-mashers.
“They put the ball in the gaps and put the ball in play. That’s baseball,” said the skipper, Jacob’s father. “We’ve done the same thing to the other teams in the regionals. It’s baseball.”
California moves next to face Montana on Wednesday night in a matchup of the last two undefeated U.S. teams.
California won the West region, while Montana won the Northwest — though both tournaments are played in San Bernardino, Calif. The teams stayed in the same dorm during regionals and the players bonded.
“I’m excited to play Montana. Of course we want to win,” Pratto said. “We’ll be talking to each other out there. Whatever happens, we’ll still be friends.”
Effective pitching, clutch hitting and timely defense have carried them through to make them the most successful Little League team to come out of Montana. Even manager Gene Carlson said he was a little surprised his team started 2-0 at the World Series.
“But once we got here, we knew we belonged,” Carlson said before turning to his players. “They can play with anybody.”
Zimmer struck out four before Jones came on to pitch the sixth and immediately got into trouble.
Louisiana’s Nick Fruge reached on a three-base error, then scored on a wild pitch. Later Cain Castille, who finished 3 for 3, doubled with two outs to put the tying run at the plate, but Jones got a fielder’s choice to end the game.
“We hit the ball, not as well as we wanted us to, but we hit at people, too,” Louisiana manager Leland Padgett said. “That’s baseball, there’s nothing you can do about that.”
Louisiana lost for the first time in tournament play, though Padgett’ not too upset about it.
“The most important thing if you’re 12 years old is learning how to lose, not win. Winning is easy,” the skipper said. “It’s how you lose that makes the character of a man, and that’s what we’re trying to teach these kids, though we’re trying to teach a little baseball, too.”