BANGOR, Maine — If the opening game of this year’s Senior League World Series is any indication, the weeklong Little League baseball championships for 14- through 16-year-olds at Mansfield Stadium won’t lack for drama.
One of the longest contests in the event’s 14-year history in the Queen City ended on a bizarre double play Sunday afternoon, enabling defending champion West University Little League of Houston, Texas, to outlast Nogales, Arizona, 5-4 in 12 innings.
Nogales, the U.S. West champion, put runners on first and second with nobody out in the bottom of the 12th on a double by Alec Acevedo and a walk to Paolo Rodriguez.
After German Rodriguez popped out to West University pitcher Jimmy Winston, Mike Gerardo hit a soft liner that was dropped by second baseman Mitchell Black.
The Nogales baserunners, thinking the ball was going to be caught, did not advance on the play, and the Texas team forced Acevedo out at third base and Paolo Rodriguez out at second to end the game.
Members of the Nogales coaching staff asserted that after the ball was dropped, the ball was picked up and second base was tagged, forcing Rodriguez out but enabling Acevedo to remain at second. That meant there would have been just one out on the play and the game would have continued with runners on first and second with two out.
“It’s a very tough way to finish the game, there was a lot of misunderstanding,” said Nogales manager Jesus Lopez. “It was a great game and I think it’s just a call that goes on in a game that hurt us, that went against us.
“Both sides played a hell of a game, they played their hearts out. But somebody’s got to win and somebody’s got to lose at the end.”
West University, the U.S. Southwest representative that returns 11 players from last year’s team, next plays at 10 a.m. Monday against U.S. Southeast champion Dumfries, Virginia, which had a first-day bye.
Nogales, Arizona, plays at 5 p.m. Monday in a consolation-bracket game of the modified double-elimination tourney against the loser of Sunday’s late game between Willemstad, Curacao, and Upper Moreland, Pennsylvania.
West University moved into the winners’ bracket despite stranding 21 runners on base during the second-longest game by innings since the SLWS came to Bangor in 2002. Regina, Saskatchewan, defeated the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 6-5 in 13 innings last year.
“That’s not the recipe you want to use in the World Series or anytime to try to win a baseball game, but we’ve been in situations like this before this summer and struggled and found a way to win,” said West University manager Clint Sauls.
“It helps that we’ve got a lot of guys returning so this isn’t new to them. (Nogales) stayed in this game and led us but fortunately we pulled it out.”
West University’s Jacob Millender reached on the game’s only error by either team with one out in the top of the 12th, then walks to Joe Gobillot and Black loaded the bases with two outs.
Barron Brown, who had batted just once earlier in the game, jumped on the first pitch he saw from Paolo Rodriguez and flared an opposite-field single down the right-field line.
Millender scored easily from third base, and while Gobillot was gunned down at the plate the U.S. Southwest champions had the run they needed.
“I came up earlier and they gave me two fastballs in a row and unfortunately I popped out,” said Brown. “I knew the next at-bat that I was going to get a fastball down the middle, and I capitalized on that.”
Winston, the third West University pitcher, earned the win with four innings of scoreless relief.
John Doxakis paced the winners’ 13-hit offense with four singles. while Black and Jared Burch each singled twice.
Acevedo doubled twice and singled for Nogales, while Ralph Padilla doubled and singled and German Rodriguez singled twice. The U.S. West champs stranded 13 runners.
“We couldn’t get the fundamentals of the game and get the bunts down and get runners in scoring position, and that hurt us,” said Lopez. “They had plenty of opportunities, and we had plenty of opportunities to finish the game and we didn’t, so we can’t blame anybody but ourselves.
“I’m very happy with the kids, they played their hearts out, we just have to come back and go the long way now.”
Nogales took a 3-0 lead with a two-out rally in the bottom of the third as Acevedo hit a two-run double to deep left and scored on a single to right by German Rodriguez.
West University tied the game with a two-out rally in the fifth, with Gobillot hitting a two-run single and Turner Gauntt following with an RBI single.
An RBI single by Millender in the top of the eighth gave West University its first lead at 4-3, but Gerardo answered for Nogales with an RBI double to left-center in the bottom of the inning.
