Little League World Series : Seoul, Mexicali Reach Semifinals

Armando Verdugo went 4 for 4 and knocked in four runs Tuesday as Mexicali, Mexico advanced to the semifinals of the Little League World Series with a 6-3 victory over Staten Island.

In the opening game of the 39th annual tournament, Seoul, South Korea, routed Maracaibo, Venezuela, 13-2, getting two home runs and five RBIs from Zin Young You.

Mexicali, representing the West region, will face the winner of today’s game between Morristown, Ky., and Minnetonka, Minn. Should Mexicali win Thursday’s semifinal, Saturday’s championship game would be the first with two foreign teams.

Seoul will take on the winner of today’s game between Binbrook, Ontario, representing Canada, and Saudi Arabia, representing the European region.

Mexicali bunched five singles in the second inning to take a 4-2 lead, added two insurance runs on Verdugo’s sixth-inning double and hung on behind hard-throwing right-hander Ricardo Ponce.

Oscar Perez and David Cardenas started the second inning with base hits and advanced on Leonardo Ramos’ sacrifice bunt. Perez came home on Omar Mendez’s single, but Cardenas was cut down at the plate.

After a walk to Santiago Villaescusa, Ernesto Carrasco singled home Mendez and sent Villaescusa to third, Carrasco taking second on the throw to the plate.

Verdugo then singled up the middle to complete the four-run inning. In the sixth, Ramos doubled, Mendez singled and Verdugo lined a double to left to score them both.

Staten Island, representing the East region, got its first two runs on Anthony DeMeo’s bases-loaded squib single in front of the plate that scored Jason Herman, who had led off with a double, and a bases-loaded walk to Michael LaPetina.

The New York team had a chance to tie the game, 4-4, in the fourth when James Tolento bounced a bad-hop single past short, scoring Richard Colacino, a pinch-runner for John DiMartino, who was hit by a pitch.

Herman, who was on second, also tried to score but was thrown out by a strong throw from left fielder Cardenas to catcher Perez.

Ponce worked six innings, yielding four hits and striking out seven. James Chirdo went the full six innings for Staten Island, giving up 12 hits and striking out seven.

Seoul’s 13-2 rout of Maracaibo began inauspiciously when Oswaldo Villalobos and Alexis Labarca belted bases-empty homers in the first off starter You Yong Jung. Labarca’s, a shot well up a hill beyond the left-field fence, was one of the longest in Series history, according to organizers.

But those were the only hits Maracaibo would get, and the Koreans stormed back with five unearned runs in their half of the first, including two on You’s first home run.

You added a three-run shot in the fifth and pitched the final two innings.

A different team from Seoul, South Korea won the World Series last year, and Asian teams have won 14 of the last 18 annual tournaments here.