VIRIGINIA team tosses second no-hitter in a row.
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Justin Lee is turning into a known quantity for baseball fans of all ages.
The 12-year-old from South Riding threw the second no-hitter for Loudoun South American Little League on Sunday at the Little League World Series.
The boys from Virginia, the southeast region champion and one of 16 teams to play for a world championship, are the dominant team in the early going in the tournament.
And they’ve yet to allow a hit.
Lee, middle reliever Liam Thyen and closer Chase Obstgarten combined to shut down New England champion Rhode Island, 3-0, on Friday. Lee returned to the mound Sunday and went the distance against Midwest champion Minnesota in a 11-0 victory before a crowd of 15,447 at historic Howard J. Lamade Stadium.
In 54 pitches, 32 of them strikes, Lee struck out six batters and walked only two. The game ended after four innings because of Little League margin-of-victory rules.
“I have no words. It’s just, I guess sometimes you get lucky and this week has been very fortunate for me,” Lee said. “I’ve been getting to meet a lot of cool people. This whole thing, being here is all great and getting to throw two no-hitters feels amazing.”
Virginia is the sixth team in Little League World Series history to throw multiple no-hitters in the same tournament. Pitchers have already thrown three no-hitters this year, including the two from Virginia and one from Caribbean champion Curacao.
Virginia will face the winner of West regional champion Hawaii and Mid-Atlantic champion New Jersey on Wednesday in the United States semifinal.
It’s another leg in a dream ride for Loudoun South and Manager Alan Bowden. He’s coached the team’s nucleus for a number of years, and 10 of the 13 players on this year’s team were on the 11-year-old team a year ago that won the district and advanced to the regional semifinal.
Bowden and the team’s assistant coaches have been banking leave time at work ever since in case this year’s team made it all the way to Williamsport.
And Sunday, Loudoun South was ready for Minnesota.
Lee cruised through the first two innings with three strikeouts while inducing weak contact. Center fielder Liam Thyen robbed Minnesota of its best chance at a hit with a diving catch on a blooper behind second base to end the frame.
Lee barely needed help from the defense after that, as teammates calmly made routine play after routine play.
At the plate, Virginia pushed across three runs in the first off Thyen’s bases-loaded-clearing double, then added five more in the second with a pair coming on another double from second baseman Colton Hicks.
“Our one, two and three batters always get on and always get big hits in big moments and me and Colton, I feel like, especially Colton, he’s a really good power hitter and he hits line drives and always scores the runs,” Thyen said. “We are a very good hitting team and from the top to the bottom everyone can hit and everyone contributes to the game.”
But even without that offense, Lee was rolling on the mound mixing a curveball with a fastball at a velocity hitters this age seldom encounter. After walking the first batter in the third, Lee retired the side in order on a strikeout, pop-out and bunt. He walked the leadoff man in the fourth, too, but got the first out on a fielder’s choice and the second on a punch-out.
Bowden asked the official scorer to verify Lee’s pitch count (pitchers are limited with how many pitches they can throw based on mandatory days of rest) as the potential final out came to the plate. Lee had a few more pitches to give before he’d be forced out of the contest.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘I’m not going to walk this kid,’ ” Lee said, “because I really wanted this.”