Hasting – A Few Runs Short

It’s named the World Series of Little League for a reason and that’s due to the level of play of these young ball players from around the Globe who display awesome talent in all area’s of the diamond.

The final game this year featured a team from Seoul who played and a team from Chicago called the Jackie Robinson West Little League allowing Seoul to pull off a surprising win the 2014 Little League World Series by doubling up on the team from Chicago 8 – 4.

Seoul is the team that is the representative for the Asia-Pacific group who managed to go 5-0 showing and displaying a powerful offense that managed to average more than 8 runs per game – yes per game!!

This marks the third Championship for a team competing from South Korea but only the first since 1985 as there seemed to be a drought for a long period of time and why is anyone’s guess?

The game was close as Jackie Robinson West squad managed to cut the lead held by Seoul to 2-1 in the bottom of the third, but Seoul would see another runner cross the plate in the fourth and the fifth taking a lead of it 4-1 as they headed into the sixth and final inning.

Seoul displayed an amazing amount of talent as they managed to open the game with a four-run inning grabbing five hits in the first six at-bats of the inning.

Not too surprisingly the offensive star in the final game was Dong Wan Sin, going 2 for 3 with a home run, while Gyu Heon Kwon added two hits in addition to having Jae Yeong Hwang collect two RBI’s and a double.

Jackie Robinson West, representing the Great Lakes region, was aiming to become the first Little League World Series winner from Illinois. They were held to just two hits — one each by D.J. Butler and Ed Howard — by Seoul pitchers Jae Yeong Hwang and Hae Chan Cho through the first five innings.

Despite a seven-run deficit heading into the bottom of the sixth, Jackie Robinson West made a run at a comeback.

Pierce Jones and Trey Hondras collected singles before being driven home on Darion Radcliff’s two-run single, only to be followed by Joshua Houston grabbing a single and Radcliff scored on a passed ball.

The rally was too little too late for the boy’s from Chicago, but played exceptional ball throughout the entire tournament, but came up short.

The last time the US had a champion dates back to 2011, when my Wife and I watched the game from one of the many lounges in Vegas watching Huntington Beach take home the title to an elated room full of US supporters.

 Each of the previous two seasons champions hailed from Tokyo.

We should mention there was a great showing by Canada’s team from Hasting Little League.