Aug 13, 2017 4 min read

This was the kind of game that Levittown, Puerto Rico, manager Pedro Felicano and Youngstown, Ohio, assistant coach Matt DeSalvo – each a former major league pitcher – could appreciate.

For six innings Sunday at the Pony League World Series, Levittown and Youngstown were locked in a classic pitcher’s duel. Levittown’s Alejandro Gonzalez and Youngstown’s Brandon Mikos raced neck and neck, tossing one scoreless inning after another, matching strikeouts and sending batters back to the dugout in disbelief after flailing helplessly at pitches that had plenty of late movement.

The right-handed pitchers were so dominant that through five innings no batter managed to advance past second base.

However, with one flick of Shawn Helpy’s bat, the pitcher’s duel came to an end.

Helpy, Youngstown’s third baseman, hit a two-run homer to left field with one out in the top of the seventh inning to give Youngstown a stunning 2-0 victory in an elimination game. The Host Area champions remain alive and will play Gusave, Mexico, in another elimination game at 10 a.m. today.

The home run came after Youngstown catcher Trey Pancake smacked a single up the middle for his third hit of the game. That brought Helpy to the plate looking for one specific pitch from Gonzalez, who threw a five-hitter.

“I was looking for a curveball,” Helpy said. “He had gotten me with curveballs the first two at-bats, so I knew it was coming. He was throwing it outside and low, so I was just trying to get some solid contact on a curveball and get it to the outfield.”

Gonzalez’s pitch wasn’t a bad one. It was offspeed, low and over the outside part of the plate. Helpy was even out in front of the pitch, with his weight on his front foot, but managed to keep his bat back until the last possible moment. With a strong flick of the wrists, Helpy was able to send the ball sailing high to left field.

“I thought it had a chance to get out, but I wasn’t sure so I was running hard,” Helpy said. “I was about halfway down the first-base line when I saw it go over the fence.”

And just like that, Youngstown’s dormant offense had erupted.

“Our bats had been going flat, so maybe hitting a shot like that will get us going,” Youngstown manager Randy Dominguez said.

There was still the matter of getting three outs in the bottom of the seventh and Mikos, who threw a four-hitter, had shown signs of fatigue in the sixth inning when Levittown stranded runners at second and third. He had thrown 99 pitches through six innings.

Given the two-run lead, Mikos received a second wind. He struck out the side in the seventh to finish the game with 14 strikeouts, seven looking.

“He was mixing his pitches in and out,” Feliciano said. “When you have a small ballpark like this one, you have to pitch inside and use the breaking ball outside. That’s what we were trying to do. (Gonzalez) just left one up.”

Gonzalez struck out seven and walked two. He retired eight batters in a row at one stretch. Mikos also walked two.

“That was amazing,” Helpy said of Mikos’ outing. “That was best performance by a pitcher that I’ve ever seen. He did a fantastic job.”

Both teams had scoring chances early in the game but ran themselves out of an inning by making outs at third base.

Youngstown had runners on first and second with two outs in the first inning but Mitch Seymour was thrown out trying to steal. In the bottom of the first, Levittown’s Jaime Santiago hit a double to left centerfield, and when Youngstown made the throw back to the infield it was overthrown and skipped across the diamond. Santiago tried to advance on the play but Youngstown first baseman Jake Gehring ran halfway down the line toward home plate, scooped the ball and threw out Santiago for the second out of the inning.

“We had men on base but didn’t get a key hit,” Feliciano said. “Their first baseman made a good play to get the runner at third base. That’s just baseball. Sometimes those things happen.”