Pennsville All-Stars stare down relegation, score four in ninth to beat Latin America to secure No. 2 seed in their pool
SENIOR SOFTBALL LL WORLD SERIES
Thursday’s scores
West 8, Southeast 7
Asia-Pacific 8, Delaware 0
Southwest 15, Pennsville 5
Central 16, Europe-Africa 1
Pennsville 6, Latin America 3
Canada 11, Europe-Africa 7
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
ROXANA, Del. — The Pennsville All-Stars don’t believe in doing things easy.
The Eagles put themselves in a must-win situation to make the tournament rounds of the Senior Softball Little League World Series, then stared down relegation several times late in that game before rallying in a bizarre ninth inning to beat Latin America champion Puerto Rico 6-3 and secure the No. 2 seed from Pool A.
They scored four runs in the top of the ninth after catcher Kylie Harris tied the game 2-2 with a leadoff homer in the sixth.
It was another late night for the Eagles, as the Thursday game ended 10 minutes before midnight. Not quite as late as the other night when they beat The Philippines to gain the tiebreaker that got them the 2 seed, but it put them in a quick turnaround nonetheless. They play the No. 3 seed from Pool B, West champion Honolulu LL, in the quarterfinals at 12:30 p.m. Friday.
The Eagles came into the day with a chance to win their pool, but after laying a 15-5 egg against two-time reigning World Series champion Texas District 9 that took away any chance of that, they were playing Puerto Rico to either finish second, make the playoffs and play through the weekend or fifth and be relegated to a one-game consolation game.
“We don’t do anything easy here,” Pennsville manager Chris Watson said. “This team doesn’t do anything easy. They don’t get an easy road, really, and they don’t take the easy road when it’s put in front of them. That’s what they did tonight. They did it the hard way.
“My wife hates it. I’m sure she’s at home watching the screen and pulling her hair out. I get a lot of that kind of feedback from parents. They’re always remarking how exciting the games always end up being. They don’t understand how I stay so calm throughout it. I’ve kind of become accustomed to it.”
Things did look dark for Pennsville. The teams were locked in a tight battle and the air kind of went out of the Eagles when they fell behind 2-1 after five innings. But Harris restarted their energy when she led off the sixth with a home run to tie it.
Suddenly, there was excitement from the Pennsville dugout and their side of the stands.
“I don’t even have words to describe that feeling,” Harris said. “It makes this sport the sport. That was one of those you’ll never forget things.”
The teams went to extra innings tied 2-2. The Eagles ran themselves out of a potential run in the eighth when Harris got caught in a rundown trying to tag on Jess Bretz’ long fly to center and it almost cost them. Puerto Rico threatened to win it in the bottom of the inning, putting the potential winning run at third with two outs and dangerous leadoff hitter Jelaidy Rosario at the plate.
Rosario had reached base four straight times in the game, but Kloi Tighe induced her into a grounder to third to end the inning.
Pennsville broke it open in the ninth after loading the bases with no outs. With Gina Shinn on second as international tiebreaker ghost runner, Savannah Palverento hit a ball off the pitcher’s glove and beat the shortstop’s throw to first. Shinn kept moving and was safe at third while Palverento pulled into second. Graillyn Weber then bunted for a single to load the bases.
Avery Watson followed with a looping liner about head high behind second base that was high enough to be an infield fly rule out and fell in between the shortstop, second baseman and charging centerfielder for a single. The infield fly rule wasn’t called because the umpires deemed it would have taken something beyond a reasonable effort by the infielders to make the play.
The infield fly rule is a runners advance at their own risk kind of thing anyway and whether they called it or not Shinn raced home with the go-ahead run. Before the inning was over, Kloi Tighe delivered a sacrifice fly, Lily Edwards squeezed a run home and Harris delivered her fourth straight hit to plate another run.
“I was just thinking don’t call infield fly, please don’t call infield fly,” Avery said. “They didn’t, so everything worked out. My main worry was they were going to call infield fly, not even that they were going to catch it.”
Tighe pitched a complete game for Pennsville in the circle, throwing 121 pitches. The ghost runner scored on her in the ninth, but closed out the game with a couple grounders. She gave up nine hits and struck out six.
“We had Jess ready to go and even warmed her up for extra innings, but Kloi’s a warrior, she wasn’t giving the ball up,” Watson said. “She wasn’t giving up much hard contact at all.”
Harris said nailing down the 2-seed “puts us in a good spot.” If they win Friday, they’ll face either Pool B winner Central (Illinois) or Puerto Rico again in Saturday’s 5:30 p.m. semfinals.
“One was ideal for us,” Harris said, “but 2 we’ll take it any day over going home.”
Pennsville 6, Latin America 3
Pennsville 001 001 004 – 6 8 3
Latin America 001 010 001 – 3 9 1
WP: Kloi Tighe. LP: Reisha Batista. 2B: Ylime Torres (LA), Jelaidy Rosario (LA). HR: Kylie Harris (P).
Southwest 15, Pennsville 5
Southwest 145 203 – 15 14 0
Pennsville 040 100 – 5 8 4
WP:Christi McGuire. LP: Jess Bretz. 2B: Bella Rappa (P), Lindsay Talafuse 2 (SW), Christi McGuire (SW), Jayden Sadler (SW), Miah Corona (SW). HR: Yasmine Traore (SW).
SENIOR SOFTBALL WORLD SERIES
Friday’s quarterfinals
A-2 Pennsville vs. B-3 West (Hawaii), 12:30 p.m.
B-2 Canada (Alberta) vs. A-3 Asia-Pacific (The Philippines), 3 p.m.
B-1 Central (Illinois) vs. A-4 Latin America (Puerto Rico), 5:30 p.m.
A-1 Southwest (Texas) vs. B-4 Southeast (Georgia), 8 p.m.
Cover photo: Pennsville catcher Kylie Harris flies into the plate and her awaiting teammates after hitting the game-tying home run against Latin America Thursday night.
Riverview Sports News 