SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Goodlettsville measured its readiness for a return trip to the Little League World Series with a five-scrimmage series against Bowling Green Eastern.
The Tennessee and Southeast Regional champions proved they again belonged in the U.S. championship game when they met their friendly rivals at Lamade Stadium Thursday night.
Zach McWilliams hit a grand slam, and R.J. Moore struck out five in two scoreless innings of relief to lift Goodlettsville past the Great Lakes champions from Kentucky, 8-4, in the U.S. elimination bracket final.
Goodlettsville earned a Saturday afternoon rematch (2:30 p.m., WKRN-2) with the only unbeaten U.S. team in the field, Maine-Endwell, N.Y., the Mid-Atlantic Region champion. Maine-Endwell won the first meeting, 3-1, behind pitcher Michael Mancini, who is ready to go again Saturday.
In order to join Maine-Endwell in the U.S. final, Goodlettsville needed to show off its pitching depth.
Ryan Oden got the win, allowing only earned runs and striking out six while working in and out of trouble for four innings.
Moore, the only pitcher Bowling Green had not seen this summer, struck out three straight in the fifth inning with a steady batch of curveballs. He then struck out leadoff hitter Devin Obee looking for the final out with two runners in scoring position.
“I was just trying to throw strikes,” Moore said. “My breaking ball was working.”
Goodlettsville has now reached the U.S. final in both its trips to Williamsport. The 2012 team won the U.S. championship and finished second in the world.
Bowling Green had its No. 1 pitcher available, but Goodlettsville gave him trouble from the start.
Although Goodlettsville never led while Isaiah Head was on the mound, it did force him through 88 pitches in three innings, meaning he could not take the mound to protect a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning, according to Little League pitch limits.
“We’ve played them so many times, we know what their strengths are and how many real top-flight pitchers they had,” Goodlettsville manager Joey Hale said. “They had three really good pitchers and they were down two for this game, so the thing was to try to get him out of the game as quick as we could.”
Goodlettsville, which had won five of its last six games in the fifth inning or later, got started a little earlier this time.
A five-run fourth inning, highlighted by the McWilliams grand slam, was enough to produce the third win in as many days as Goodlettsville fought its way back through the bracket after the Monday loss to Maine-Endwell.
Great Lakes manager Rick Kelley walked Tyler Jones intentionally to load the bases for McWilliams, something the team’s No. 3 hitter had never experienced before.
“Coach (Jerry Hale) told me, ‘What are you going to do about that’?” McWilliams said. “He said, ‘They think you’re an easy out. They’re loading the bases for you. They want to pitch to you.’”
Twins Tanner and Tyler Jones each reached base their first three times up. They fouled off two-strike pitches while working consecutive walks to start the game. Although they were both stranded, Goodlettsville chewed up 30 of Head’s pitches in the first inning after only swinging at three of the first 19.
“We were not swinging until he got a called strike on us,” Hale said.
Oden doubled to drive in one run and score the other in the second for a 2-2 tie.
He drove in another run with a sacrifice fly to complete the five-run fourth.
U.S. Championship
Who: Goodlettsville vs. Maine-Endwell, N.Y.
When: Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET
Where: South Williamsport, Pa.
TV: ABC
