Houston Chronicle

No place like home

Garcia homers, then joins forces with Tadlock on pitching gem in 1-0 victory

- By Tom Robinson

Isaac Garcia, right center, is greeted by his teammates after his fourth-inning home gave Pearland West a 1-0 victory in their Little League World Series opener at South Williamspo­rt, Pa., on Friday.

SOUTH WILLIAMSPO­RT, Pa. — WilshireRi­verside never did get a ball in the air.

Pearland West’s only hit went a long way, but it was not in the air long.

Isaac Garcia’s linedrive, leadoff home run in the top of the fourth inning Friday was one of only two hits in the game and proved deciding shot in lifting Pearland to a 1-0 victory over the Portland (Ore.)-based team in the U.S. bracket opener at the 69th annual Little League World Series.

Only three runners reached base in the game — all in the fourth inning — as the Southwest and Northwest Regional champions matched outstandin­g pitching and, when needed, flawless defense.

“It was an awesome baseball game at any level, but to watch 12- and 13-year-old boys play at that level, on that stage, it was incredible,” Pearland manager Andrew Solomon said after the victory before an announced crowd of 10,423 at Lamade Stadium and a national television audience.

Garcia provided the game’s run, but he had plenty of help in leading Pearland into Sunday’s 2 p.m. U.S. winners’ bracket semifinal against Sweetwater Valley, Calif., the West Regional champion, which hit six homers in a 14-2, four-inning rout of Bowling Green Eastern, the Great Lakes champion from Kentucky.

Jarrett Tadlock retired the first 11 batters and 13 of the 14 he faced before coming out early to keep him eligible on pitch count rules to throw again as early as Monday, if needed. Garcia got the final five outs on the combined onehitter.

The two pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts and seven groundouts and benefited from third baseman Caleb Low handling three tough chances.

Even Wilshire-Riverside’s only hit was on the ground, Spencer Scott’s single through the right side with two out in the fourth inning. The only baserunner for the Northwest champs never got past first.

The pitching duel began with lefthander Dylan MacLean striking out the first six and eight of the first nine for WilshireRi­verside, while Tadlock was getting six of his eight strikeouts in the first three innings.

Garcia broke that up by battling back from an 0-2 count, fouling off a pair of pitches with a full count and lining a shot onto the hillside well beyond both sets of fences in left-center field.

“I’ve been having problems with that, but I didn’t have problems there,” Garcia said.

MacLean wound up reaching the pitch limit after walking one and giving up one hit while striking out 12 in 52⁄3 innings.

“It was a tough one to lose, obviously,” WilshireRi­verside manager Matt Farr said. “Dylan pitched a gem.”

Tadlock and Garcia combined to be just a bit better.

“He did an amazing job,” Garcia said of Tadlock after finishing the job with a five-out save.

Tom Robinson is a freelance writer.

 ?? Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press ??
Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press
 ?? Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press ?? Pearland West’s Isaac Garcia watches the flight of his line-drive home run that he hit off Dylan MacLean in the fourth inning of Friday’s 1-0 victory.
Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press Pearland West’s Isaac Garcia watches the flight of his line-drive home run that he hit off Dylan MacLean in the fourth inning of Friday’s 1-0 victory.

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