Dreary day all the way around ends Pennsville’s hopes at Senior Softball World Series; consolation game set for 5:30 p.m. Saturday

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

ROXANA, Del. — A dreary day ended in a dreary way for the Pennsville Senior Softball All-Stars.

In their flattest, most disinterested outing of the entire tournament, the Eagles were eliminated from contention in the Senior Softball Little League World Series by a 15-1 loss to Honolulu LL in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Their run-rule loss to Texas Thursday night was bad in many ways, but this one was much worse.

They had six hits, 11 errors (although the official stats list only seven) and a general sense of malaise. 

“It wasn’t us,” Pennsville manager Chris Watson said. “We weren’t on the field today. It wasn’t Pennsville. That was something else that was carryover from a lot of other personal issues. We just never got past them to be able to play our game and it showed on the field.”

An issue at the team hotel a few hours earlier led to Watson benching two of his best players and battery mates Jess Bretz and Kylie Harris. The action forced a major upheaval in what had been a steady lineup throughout the tournament.

Both players entered the game to hit in the second inning and play the field in the third, but by then the emotional toll had taken hold. The benching potentially could have been longer, but Watson said the players exhibited enough contrition in the dugout in the first inning to show him they had come to terms with the conflict.

Pennsville did answer the run Hawaii scored in the top of the first inning with its makeshift lineup in the bottom half when Savannah Palverento scored from third when second baseman Mya Kishida dropped the ball on Bella Rappa’s stolen base, but it fell behind again in the second and the West champions steadily pulled away.

Pennsville had even more wind taken away in the second. Bretz hit a ball to deep center that centerfield Nikki Chong caught but dislodged as she doubled over the fence. The ball came back into the field of play live, but lead runner Kloi Tighe was in no-man’s land as a runner and was forced at second.

Later in the inning, Lily Edwards beat out an infield single, but Bretz got too far around second, got caught in a rundown and was tagged out on the base paths to end the inning.

The Eagles were punchless at the plate after that. They had only two hits and two runners in scoring position over the final five innings. 

“This morning there was a lot of drama that happened and there was no reason for it, considering how it all started to what it turned into,” starting pitcher Tighe said. “We were a family coming into this and we’re not leaving as one, I don’t think.

“We didn’t play like a family because of what happened this morning and I think it’s childish, but we weren’t able to move past it. It never got better. The heads drooped down. Everyone was at each other’s throat,. It didn’t seem like anyone wanted to be there. And it’s a shame.”

The Eagles have a chance for some redemption in a consolation game Saturday at 5:30 p.m. against The Philippines. Pennsville beat the Asia-Pacific champs 7-6 in the game that spilled over into Wednesday morning.

“Hopefully, we’re able to play one more time as a team,” Tighe said. “Tomorrow we owe it to the coaches because they’ve been with us. They didn’t deserve that today.”

Senior Softball LL World Series
Quarterfinals
West 15, East 1
Honolulu LL 112 303 5 – 15 13 1
Pennsville LL 100 000 0 – 1 6 7
WP: Baguio. LP: Tighe. HR: Baguio (H).

Friday’s quarterfinals
West (Hawaii) 15, Pennsville 1
Canada (Alberta) 8, Asia-Pacific (The Philippines) 7
Saturday’s games
Quarterfinal: Central (Illinois) 16, Latin America (Puerto Rico) 0
Quarterfinal: Southwest (Texas) 15, Southeast (Georgia) 1
Delaware vs. Czech Republic, 3 p.m.
Pennsville vs. Asia-Pacific (The Philippines), 5:30 p.m.
Semifinal: West (Honolulu) vs. Central (Illinois), 5:30 p.m.
Semifinal: Canada (Alberta) vs. Southwest (Texas), 8 p.m.
Latin America (Puerto Rico) vs. Southeast (Georgia), 8 p.m.
Sunday’s games
Third-place game, 11 a.m.
Championship game, 7 p.m.

Photo: The Pennsville softball team huddles in the outfield to clear some air after its 15-1 World Series loss to Honolulu.

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.

Texas, Illinois only undefeated teams left in pool play (3-0), Pennsville back at it with DH Thursday and a chance to win its pool

SENIOR SOFTBALL LL WORLD SERIES
Wednesday’s scores
West 15, Europe-Africa 1
Central 3, Canada 2
Latin America 6, Delaware 5
Southwest 18, Asia-Pacific 2

By Riverview Sports News

ROXANA, Del. – The Southwest and Central U.S. champions are the only undefeated teams remaining in pool play in the Senior Softball Little League World Series, but after the events of Wednesday night, the Pennsville Eagles have a chance to swoop in and steal the top seed in their pool.

The Eagles had the night off, a welcome respite after playing past midnight the day before. They play their final two pool games Thursday and after Latin America held off Delaware Wednesday night they have a chance to win the No. 1 seed with a sweep of Team Southwest and Latin America.

Here are the recaps of Wednesday night’s games:

POOL A
SOUTHWEST 18, ASIA-PACIFIC 2: Catcher Jayden Sadler hit a three-run homer in the first inning, Journee White and Miah Corona had three hits apiece and pitcher Allyson Schauer came within one out of a four-inning no-hitter as the Southwest champions from Texas moved closer to clinching the No. 1 seed in the pool.

The two-time defending champions from the Waco area can clinch the top seed with a victory over Pennsville in Thursday’s 5:30 p.m. game. The Texans, who’ve outscored their opponents in this year’s tournament 33-4, won it in 2019 and 2022. There were no tournaments in 2020 and 2021. 

LATIN AMERICA 6, DELAWARE 5: The champions from Puerto Rico opened a 6-0 lead through four innings, then held off a furious comeback from last year’s runner-up and host team over the last three innings.

Delaware cut the margin to 6-4 in the fifth on Ashlyn Ullman’s three-run homer and made it 6-5 in the sixth after loading the bases. The Tribe had the tying and go-ahead runners on base with one out in the seventh, but the game ended on a ground ball double play. 

POOL B
CENTRAL 3, CANADA 2: Cora Ellison hit a one-out solo homer in the eighth inning to snap a 2-2 tie and reliever Mia Volpert retired the side in order in the bottom of the inning to preserve the victory that clinched the No. 1 seed in the pool. The Canadians tied the game with a pair of unearned runs in the sixth.

Even if the champions from Illinois lose their final pool game Thursday and finish tied with Canada in the standings, they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.

WEST 15, EUROPE-AFRICA 1: Shelby Baguio drove in five runs with three hits, including a homer, and spun a complete-game three-hitter in the circle to lift the West champions from Honolulu to their first win of the tournament. Baguio had an RBI single in the third inning, a two-run homer in the fourth and a two-run single in the fifth. Tasiana Taufahema had two hits and four RBIs.

SENIOR SOFTBALL LL WORLD SERIES
Thursday’s games
West vs. Southeast
Asia-Pacific vs. Delaware
Southwest vs. Pennsville, 5:30 p.m.
Central vs. Europe-Africa
Pennsville vs. Latin America, 8 p.m.
Europe-Africa vs. Canada
Friday’s games
Game 21: A-2 vs. B-3, 12:30 p.m.
Game 22: Canada (B-2) vs. A-3, 3 p.m.
Game 23: Central (B-1) vs. A-4, 5:30 p.m.
Game 24: Pennsville or Southwest (A-1) vs. B-4, 8 p.m.
Saturday’s game
A-5 vs. B-5, 3 p.m.
Losers of Games 21-22, 3 p.m.
21 vs. 23, 5:30 p.m.
22 vs. 24, 8 p.m.
Losers of Games 23-24, 8 p.m.
Sunday’s game
Third-place game, 11 a.m.
Championship game, 7 p.m.

STANDINGS	W	L	RF	RA	TIEBREAKER NOTES
POOL A
Southwest	3	0	33	4	Beat LA, Del, AP
Pennsville	1	1	12	14	Beat AP; Lost to Del
Delaware	1	2	14	16	Beat Penn; Lost to SW, LA
Latin America	1	2	8	22	Beat Del; Lost to SW, AP
Asia-Pacific	1	2	15	26	Beat LA; Lost to Penn, SW
POOL B
Central	3	0	21	6	Beat W, SE, Can
Canada	2	1	19	5	Beat SE, W; Lost to Cent
Southeast	1	2	8	25	Beat EA; Lost to Can, Cent
West	1	2	20	15	Beat EA; Lost to Cent, Can
Europe-Africa	0	2	5	23	Lost to SE, W

Pennsville gets first World Series victory, 7-6; 8 p.m. game that started at 10, ends at 12:28 a.m.

SENIOR SOFTBALL LL WORLD SERIES
Tuesday’s scores
Central 11, Southeast 1
Canada 7, West 2
Asia-Pacific 7, Latin America 1
Southeast 8, Europe-Africa 4
Southwest 5, Delaware 1
Pennsville 7, Asia-Pacific 6

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

ROXANA, Del. – It’s a good thing the Pennsville All-Stars have a day off from the Senior Softball Little League World Series on Wednesday. They really need to sleep in.

The Eagles played long into the night – Tuesday night into Wednesday morning long – before finally putting away the Asia-Pacific champion from The Philippines 7-6 for their first win in the Series.

“It’s rewarding” Pennsville manager Chris Watson said after it finally came to an end. “You feel like you put in a 12-hour day and got paid.”

The game ended at 12:28 a.m., about a half hour before Little League curfew. The Eagles, who had already taken a day trip to the beach to kill time before their scheduled 8 p.m. game, had been at the ballpark since 5:30 p.m. when they arrived to look in on The Philippines-Puerto Rico game, but that hadn’t even started yet as Canada and Hawaii went long.

The Eagles tried all kinds of things to stay occupied while they waited to play, but after a while you see some strange things. At the stroke of midnight, the dugout could be heard singing “Happy Birthday” to first baseman Bella Rappa, whose 17th birthday is Wednesday. Lily Edwards and Kylie Harris broke out a couple personal rally caps they built out of drink cups. And in the seventh, Watson, Harris and third baseman Bella Farina tried to corral a wayward moth in the infield that threatened to prolong the game even more.

“I was sitting right next to Jess (while they waited) and we were both talking about how bored we were and we just wanted to play,” Watson said. “You can only do so much scouting and we’re sitting there scouting the ballgame, but after a while it’s like, all right, we know these batters and pitchers and we know the other team’s batters and pitchers, just come on, get the game going.”

“I was bored before we started playing,” said Bretz, who hadn’t realized it was past midnight when the game ended. “But now it’s good.” 

Once they got down to the serious business of the game, which started at 10:05 p.m. (after the concession stand shut down for the night), Farina gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead for the second game in a row and Bretz pitched and hit them to a victory.

Bretz returned to the circle as a starter for the first time since the quarterfinals of the East Regional. She gave the Eagles a complete game and with the exception of one inning was as sharp as she was earlier in the tournament.

She put The Philippines down in order in the first, but in the second they batted around to tie the game. Five of their first six hitters of the inning reached on hits or walks and they batted with the bases loaded four times and all four times brought in a run.

But after that, Bretz gave up just four hits, one unearned run and struck out three for her first win since her no-hitter against Morris Plains in the state tournament. 

“My mindset definitely changed (after the big inning),” she said. “It went from throwing the ball and spin it past their bats to just letting them hit the ball. The mindset games kind of fixed everything else. I was spinning the ball more and I thought, oh, let’s just throw it at the bat.”

Bretz was just as effective at the plate. She gave the Eagles a 5-0 lead with a three-run double in the second inning and slammed a two-run homer in the fourth to give them a 7-5 lead after The Philippines reached her for five runs in the second to tie the game.

“Obviously, I couldn’t have done it without the other people getting on,” Bretz said. “It just felt good to stroke the ball well, because I hadn’t been hitting well recently, so it felt good to get a good stroke on the ball.”

Farina gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead with a two-out, two-run single in the first off Jeryll Duller, the second pitcher of the inning. Bretz hit her double off Duller and homered off ace Angelica Jean Latriz, who came on in the third after throwing 93 pitches in The Philippines’ tournament opener against Puerto Rico.

The homer was Bretz’ third this tournament in games in which she was pitching. One of them came after she was lifted from the circle, but it was still a game she started.

“When she came around after hitting the home run I said to her something along the lines of ‘how ‘bout that, you can hit when you’re pitching,’” Watson said. “That’s been the thing all along, right, when she’s pitching she doesn’t have the mindset to hit home runs, but I think we’re kind of getting over that at this point. I think that’s been beaten to death; I think we’re good now. This girl can hit.”

The Philippines didn’t give Bretz another chance to hurt them. They intentionally walked her the next time she came to the plate and tried to do it again in the seventh before Watson reminded them the rules prohibit intentionally walking the same hitter twice in the game. They walked her on four pitches anyway.

“It happened a lot during high school season, too,” Bretz said. “Obviously, I want to hit the ball, but that’s crazy that I gained respect from the coaches from a different country. I think that’s insane.”

The Eagles were scheduled to have a 9 a.m. off-day practice Wednesday and then head to the beach for a little R&R. Given the hour of the game’s finish, practice has been bumped up to noon.

“That kind of solves a problem,” Watson said. “I was worried about them getting sunburned and spending too much energy in the water and everything, so now we’ll just go late and we’ll have dinner. Maybe they can run around the water a little bit, but it’ll be brief.”

SERIES STUFF: Edwards had four hits in the game for Pennsville … Outfielder Savannah Palverento was hit in the head with a pitch in the third inning. She came out for precaution, but appeared fine after the game … Watson’s bad luck with coin tosses continued. The Eagles will be the visitors in all four of their pool games this week as he all four tosses in the coaches meeting … Philippines shortstop Daniela Cabangon was hit in a face with a pitch in the game with Puerto Rico and after being helped to the dugout was transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation … The Eagles’ moth wranglers eventually did capture the insect and carried it over to the fence.

SENIOR SOFTBALL LL WORLD SERIES
Pennsville 7, Asia-Pacific 6
Pennsville      230 200 0 – 7 13   2
Asia-Pacific   050 100 0 – 6   7   0
WP: Jess Bretz. LP: Laira Silverio. 2B: Kylie Harris (P), Jess Bretz (P). HR: Jess Bretz (P). 

STANDINGS	W	L	RF	RA
Pool A
Southwest	2	0	15	2
Delaware	1	1	9	10
Pennsville	1	1	12	14
Asia-Pacific	1	1	13	8
Latin America	0	2	2	17
Pool B
Canada	2	0	17	2
Central	2	0	18	4
Southeast	1	2	8	25
Europe-Africa	0	1	4	8
West	0	2	5	14