Kentucky moves on after 3-run HR
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT – Devin Obee hit a three-run home run to help Bowling Green, Ky., beat Portland, Ore., 7-5, Saturday in an elimination game in the Little League World Series.
Obee homered in a four-run fifth inning that gave Kentucky a 7-0 lead.
“I was just thinking base hit, trying to hit a line drive,” Obee said. “Then the home run happened. It means a lot, doing it because it’s the Little League World Series.”
An inning earlier, he had a leadoff single sparked in a three-run inning. Obee and Maddox Burr scored on a throwing error and pinch-hitter Tayshaun Jones added an RBI single.
Bowling Green needed those runs when Oregon scored five times in the sixth. Spencer Scott hit a three-run home run and Cooper Shaw followed with a home run that made it 7-5.
Bowling Green pitcher Carson Kelley cruised through the first five innings, allowing only two hits, striking out nine and walking none. Carson Myers earned the save.
On Monday, Bowling Green will face the loser of tonight’s game between Taylors, S.C., and Lewisberry. Portland will play Santiago de los Caballero, Dominican Republic, Monday in a consolation game.
In other losers’ bracket games Saturday, it was: Sydney 3, Santiago de los Caballero 0; and Taipei, Taiwan 16, White Rock, British Columbia 4 in four innings. In the late game, Cranston, R.I., faced Webb City, Mo.
Taiwan 16, Canada 4: Wei Hung Chou hit a grand slam in the third inning and a two-run shot in fourth to help Taipei beat White Rock.
Chou was 3-for-3 and fell an RBI short of the LLWS record of seven.
Yen Cheng Yu capped Taiwan’s nine-run first with a two-run home run, and Hao En Chen added a solo home run in the fourth. Marcus Bradley had two of Canada’s five hits.
Taiwan will play Monday against the loser of today’s game between Uganda and Venezuela. Canada will play a consolation game Tuesday.
Australia 3, Domincan Republic 0: Jake Burns and Blake Cavill hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning for Sydney.
Burns also earned the win, striking out 10 and allowing only one hit in 4 1/3 innings.
Myles Chabi’s diving catch in right field off Anderson Luciano’s shot into the gap ended the fifth inning and stranded two Santiago de los Caballero runners.
Sydney will play Monday against the loser of the Japan-Mexico game.