LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES : Long Beach Beats Central Champion

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Kevin Sullivan capped a six-run fourth inning with a three-run home run Monday as the Long Beach All-Stars defeated South Holland, Ill., 10-6, in the opening game of the Little League World Series.

It was the 18th consecutive victory in all-star play for West Region champion Long Beach. South Holland (16-2), the Central Region champion, saw a seven-game winning streak snapped.

Long Beach will play Hamilton Square, N.J. today at 11 a.m. PDT.

Hamilton Square beat Lake Charles, La., 5-0, in the first night game in World Series history.

Pitcher Sean Burroughs, son of former major leaguer Jeff Burroughs, struck out 12 and gave up five hits to improve his postseason record to 8-0. He also had two of Long Beach’s 12 hits.

Burroughs gave up a solo home run to Sam Hamstra to open the bottom of the second inning, but then settled down as Long Beach took a 7-1 lead. Two errors, a passed ball and a bloop single helped South Holland cut the lead to 7-6 with none out in the fourth, but Burroughs struck out the next two and retired Devin Barber on a grounder.

Burroughs, 11, went on to strike out seven of the last nine he faced, including three in the sixth.

“I think he had to adjust to that mound,” Long Beach Manager Larry Lewis said. “We’re used to a higher mound than they have here, so consequently, he was struggling to find it early on.”

Burroughs’ father, the team’s third base coach, stressed how important it was to win the first game of the series, which for the first time is using a round-robin format that guarantees each team a minimum of three games.

In the bottom of second inning, Hamstra hit a 1-and-2 curveball from Burroughs barely beyond the left-field fence.

But Ryan Beaver of Long Beach tied the score in the top of the third with a solo home run, also to left field.

Alex DeFazio, Burroughs and Ryan Stuart each drove in a run during the fourth, and then Sullivan hit his three-run homer.