Pulling hard for PA. Something about a town of 350 winning this thing in front of that crowd that would be very special.
Seems TX's pitching is pretty depleted, while PA has their ace.
Posted on 08/29/2015 8:31:44 AM PDT by FlJoePa
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT -- If "the moment" hasn't yet negatively impacted Red Land Little League's collection of 12- and 13-year-old boys, then no reason to expect it will today.
Expert climbers don't get 95 percent of the way up Kilimanjaro and suddenly get cold feet and a fear of heights.
Neither, then, should we expect Red Land to tighten up in the U.S. championship of the 2015 Little League World Series at Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport.
Tom Peifer's special collection of ballplayers meets Texas powerhouse Pearland West in the 3:30 p.m. title game, a berth in Sunday's 3 p.m. overall championship on the line.
Japan and Mexico meet in today's international championship at 12:30, also at Lamade Stadium. Both will be televised live on ABC.
Potentially record crowds are expected to pour into South Williamsport in time for the Pennsylvania vs. Texas U.S. championship, which is a rematch of Red Land's 3-0 victory Wednesday night.
"It's awesome," Cole Wagner, Red Land's probable starting pitcher this afternoon, said after clinching this title game berth. "Thinking about it now, the worst we can do is second-best team in the U.S., which is still quite an accomplishment. But we're going to go out there and try to win this thing."
The first team to play for a U.S. championship since nearby Shippensburg won it in 1990, Red Land enters this game as the prohibitive favorite.
Andrew Solomon's Texas boys needed to twice fight off high-octane Sweetwater Valley, Calif., to get here, including Thursday's dramatic extra-inning victory.
Because of pitch counts, Solomon's top three pitchers -- Ben Gottfried, Isaac Garcia and Jarrett Tadlock -- are unavailable to pitch. Marco Gutierrez is the only available pitcher who's thrown in this tournament, and he allowed a run in 1.2 innings of relief Wednesday vs. Red Land.
"We're a good baseball team," Solomon said after Thursday's victory over California. "We're solid. We battle. We play every pitch, every inning. ... They're already talking about who we're going to pitch. I have no idea. We'll figure it out. We'll bring guys to the hill, and they'll get the job done. It's going to be crazy. It was crazy out there [Wednesday] night. It will be fun, though, right?"
The heavily pro-Pennsylvania crowd could again serve as a positive influence for Red Land (or negative influence for Pearland).
Some of Texas' players joked Thursday night about Red Land's Red Sea of fans, even saying some of them were "mean."
"They complain a lot," said power hitting first baseman Zack Mack.
"[They] sound like my mom when she's mad," added Gottfried.
Solomon might have summed it up best after Wednesday's 3-0 loss to Red Land: "It's obviously not easy to play before 35,000 people when 34,900 are rooting for Pennsylvania."
Today could see crowds grow well past 40,000. The Little League World Series estimated attendance record is 44,800 for Tokyo, Japan, vs. Apopka, Fla., in 2001, according to the LLWS 2015 Media Guide.
Red Land spent its final off day visiting Penn State football practice, hanging out with head coach James Franklin and crew, and even kicking clutch field goals.
It's been a long time away from home, living in dorms and barracks since the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament earlier this month in Bristol, Conn.
Regionals was also the last time Red Land played a day game, a 12-0 victory over Jackson Twp., N.J., in the Aug. 16 title game. All three previous LLWS games started after 8 p.m.
"Just incredible," Peifer said Wednesday night of playing for the U.S. title. "To be able to tell the kids after the game, 'You have two days off, and then you're playing [for the U.S. championship],' I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth. It's just an unbelievable experience, and I'm so proud of the boys."
Special parties, parades and activities are already being mapped out for the days and weeks after the boys finally get home late Sunday night.
But before the realities of home and school creep back into the picture, there are two more games for the boys to be boys.
No pressure felt, even with the world watching.
Pulling hard for PA. Something about a town of 350 winning this thing in front of that crowd that would be very special.
Seems TX's pitching is pretty depleted, while PA has their ace.
Will Curt Shilling (you know the guy who said 5-10% of muslims are radical) be announcing?
Pennsylvania Ping...
Rooting for my hometown boys.
Go Pearland!!
Dang, my boys have practice at that time. We will miss it, but watch it tonight.
Good Luck Red Land from Brackney PA!
What? No overage ghetto girls and boys from Chicago competing this year for the President?
They decided to go legal this year.
Go, Texas!
40K people there already and the game is still 2 hours away. Could wind up close to 50K. Should be great!
No, but all teams submitted their diversity stats to Sharpton, Jackson, obama and holder for their seal of approval. Sharpton, Jackson and Holder couldn’t be bothered to respond as they were too busy counting their money, and obama was golfing as usual.
Go Red Land
Watching on ABC now.
You bet. Such an awesome opportunity for our kiddos. They are doing Pearland Proud. Too bad it’s so far from Texas so that more of us could have gone to support them.
Pearland has a nice run going, (2010, 14, and 15, just missed going in 2011).
Trying to catch up on reading FR posts as well as some business stuff. Have their game going on TV - just a real nailbiter. Having more than a little trouble concentrating and I don’t even have a child or grandchild in the mix.
I don’t have children and it’s been two decades since I was LL age but I still follow.
Word is attendance is around 48,000
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