Long Beach Has Hitting, Pitching and Luck : Little League: Kids reach World Series in Williamsport, Pa., where they won’t see a team from Taiwan.

Until Friday, Long Beach Little League All-Star team players had two great things going for them:

--They hit home runs more often than the 1961 New York Yankees.

--Their pitching has been more effective than that of the 1963 Dodgers.

Now, news from Asia gives them a third plus:

--When they reach Williamsport, Pa., for next week’s Little League World Series, they won’t have to play Taiwan.

Teams from Taiwan have dominated the Williamsport event off and on since 1969. But a Taiwanese team was beaten last week in a qualifying tournament by one from the Philippines.

Long Beach qualified Thursday for the eight-team Williamsport tournament, which begins Monday, by defeating San Ramon Valley, Calif., 11-3, in San Bernardino. In the 41-year history of the Long Beach Little League, this is its first trip to Williamsport.

“This is a phenomenal ballclub,” said Carl McGee, Southern California regional director for Little League.

“They’re extremely well coached in that there are no real superstars on their team; they just play very well together.

“They’re all in the right positions. You watch them play and they give you the feeling that if they lost one of their 14 players it would be a significant loss for them, no matter who it was.”

One of the coaches is Jeff Burroughs, 41, who hit 240 home runs in 16 major league seasons before retiring in 1985. His son, Sean, 11, is a pitcher/shortstop.

In the Long Beach team’s 17-0 streak through district, sectional and divisional playoffs, Burroughs, a 5-foot-3, 135-pounder, has hit 16 home runs in 17 games.

One of them came in San Bernardino on Sunday, when Long Beach, trailing for the first time in nine games, won with late-game homers.

Burroughs and Ryan Beaver hit them back-to-back in the sixth inning against Pearl City, Hawaii. The home runs were the difference in a 3-2 victory.

Long Beach has 47 home runs in its 17-0 streak, and its players had hit another 66 in the regular season. Burroughs was leading Long Beach in hitting through Wednesday with a .638 average. Dane Mayfield was hitting .442, Beaver .429.

Other primary pitchers have been Beaver, Dane Mayfield, Kevin Sullivan, Randall Shelley and Alex DeFazio.

In the 17-0 streak that has taken them to Williamsport, Burroughs is 7-0, Mayfield 6-0 and Beaver 4-0.

However, Mayfield injured an elbow recently and is out of the Williamsport tournament, team officials said.

Also qualifying for Williamsport are U.S. all-star teams from South Holland, Ill.; South Lake Charles, La., and Trenton, N.J.

International teams that qualified are from Zamboanga City, the Philippines; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany. A Canadian entry was to be determined Friday night.

The U.S. teams begin a round-robin tournament Monday, with a title game Thursday. The international teams will do the same, with the championship game next Saturday.