The El Segundo all-star team emerged as the victors of the U.S. championship in the Little League World Series on Saturday. They secured a 6-1 win against Needville, Texas, who had previously defeated El Segundo earlier in the week.
El Segundo is now set to compete for the world championship title on Sunday, facing off against the Willemstad, Curacao all-star team. Willemstad secured the international championship earlier in the day, triumphing with a 2-0 victory over Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Louis Lappe of El Segundo played a key role in their victory, limiting Needville to just three hits and one run over 5 1/3 innings. Lappe also contributed significantly on offense, driving in five runs, including a three-run homer in the fifth inning against reliever Easton Ondruch.
“Once you hit it, sometimes you know it’s going out and that one I knew it was going out as soon as I hit it,” Lappe remarked to ABC.
In the third inning, Lappe singled in two runs in front of a crowd of 28,791 at Howard J. Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Contributing to El Segundo’s success, Brody Brooks hit a home run in the first inning, went 3-for-3, and scored three runs.
Needville managed to score their lone run in the top of the fifth when D.J. Jablonski hit a double, advanced to third on an error, and subsequently scored on a wild pitch by Lappe.
Jablonski was charged with the loss, allowing four runs and six hits in 4 1/3 innings. He recorded six strikeouts and three walks.
In a previous encounter between Jablonski and El Segundo on Monday, El Segundo was only able to score one run through Lappe’s first-inning home run.
This victory marked the fourth win in five days for El Segundo, following their initial loss to Needville, the champion of the Southwest Region.
Throughout the summer, El Segundo has maintained an impressive record of 19-2 across five tournaments. Their only other loss came against the all-star team from the Sherman Oaks Little League. However, El Segundo avenged that loss with a 3-2 victory in a rematch on the same day.
The defeat marked the end of a 14-game winning streak for Needville, lowering their record to 20-2 across five tournaments.
Before this championship game, it had been since 1994 that a Los Angeles County team had participated in the U.S. championship. In 1994, the Northridge Little League all-star team, which included future USC and NFL quarterback Matt Cassel, clinched the U.S. championship title.
Los Angeles County teams have achieved victory in the Little League World Series three times. The Granada Hills National Little League all-star team secured the title in 1963, while teams from the Long Beach Little League emerged as champions in both 1992 and 1993.
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