After injuring arm, Low pitches in at 3rd
Defensive skills on full display in Pearland’s opening victory
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — When Pearland West made its first impressive postseason run two years ago, Caleb Low was the top pitcher.
That helps explain the defensive prowess he displayed Friday when helping Pearland open the Little League World Series with a 1-0 victory over Northwest Regional champion Wilshire-Riverside of Portland, Ore.
While Jarrett Tadlock and Isaac Garcia were combining on a one-hitter, the defense was involved in only eight plays for Pearland, which plays Sunday at 2 p.m. in a U.S. winners-bracket semifinal against Sweetwater Valley, the West Regional champ from Bonita, Calif.
“They didn’t get a whole lot of work,” Wilshire-Riverside manager Matt Farr said of Pearland. “They probably don’t need a shower on the defensive side.”
With an arm injury keeping him off the mound, Low has found other ways to help the team. Playing third base, he was the only Pearland player to have three balls hit to him and might have handled the three toughest chances of the game. In each case, he combined slick fielding and an impressive arm.
“Caleb made some amazing plays at third,” Tadlock said.
The two starting pitchers had retired the game’s first 16 batters when Low charged a Kyle Oslund bunt to make the play just in time.
“I saw it pretty quickly,” Low said of the speedster’s plans to lay one down.
With Wilshire-Riverside’s only runner of the game on base, Low came in and to his left to make the last out of the fourth inning. He handled another play, grabbing a short hop on a hard-hit ball to start the sixth.
“The thing about Caleb is that he hasn’t played a lot of third base,” Pearland manager Andrew Solomon said of Low, who came down with arm trouble last year. “His arm still isn’t recovered. We haven’t pitched him at all. He was probably the best 11-year-old pitcher in our league last year, but we’ve been really cautious with his arm.”
Solomon said Low has an inclination to go full speed on everything. He has become a better fielder by learning some patience as ground balls arrive, but he still makes every throw with authority.
“He does everything double speed,” Solomon said of Low, who has more experience at second base and shortstop and has played some left field.
Odds and ends
Although Pearland has generally dominated, it had been in a 1-0 game before Friday. One of its two one-run victories over Lufkin in the Texas East tournament was by that score. The difference: role reversal for Jarrett Tadlock and Isaac Garcia. Garcia had Friday’s game-winning homer, and Tadlock earned the win. In the Texas East final against Lufkin, Tadlock hit the homer and Garcia was the winning pitcher. Aside from the two games with Lufkin, Pearland was 12-0 by a cumulative 176-12 on the road to Williamsport. …
Either Garcia or Ben Gottfried, who was originally scheduled to pitch the opener before it was rained out Thursday, will start on the mound for Pearland on Sunday. …
Sweetwater Valley reached Sunday’s matchup with one of two blowouts among Friday’s eight LLWS games. Behind an 11-run third inning, it beat Great Lakes champion Bowling Green Eastern (Ky.) 14-2 in four innings. The West champions hit five of their six home runs in the third, including a grand slam by sub Nick Maldonado. Cleanup hitter Will Lannom went 3-for-3 with a homer. …
Sweetwater Valley averaged 12.5 runs through the West Regional but gave up more runs than most of the LLWS field, allowing 5.5 per game.