LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES : Victory Comes the Hard Way for Long Beach

While a flu-like virus spread through the Little League World Series and one game was halted, Long Beach managed to rally for a 6-4 victory over Hamilton Square, N.J., on Tuesday.

It was the 19th consecutive victory for Long Beach and the 46th overall for teams coached by Larry Lewis since the youth baseball season began last spring.

Long Beach, the only undefeated team in the U.S. bracket, will play Lake Charles, La., today. Lake Charles beat South Holland, Ill., 3-2, in eight innings.

Simply getting in games was a problem Tuesday. At least 16 players from three teams have become ill since Sunday with dizziness, vomiting and dehydration.

Late Monday, medical personnel sanitized the European headquarters, where 11 of 14 players from the Kaiserslautern Military Little League came down with the illness.

Kaiserslautern trailed, 24-0, and was without a hit in the fourth inning of its game with the Dominican Republic on Tuesday when play was halted.

It’s unclear whether the German team, made up of dependents of U.S. military personnel, will field a team for its final game of the round-robin format against Canada at 11 a.m. PDT today. Two players from Valleyfield, Canada, also were reported ill Tuesday.

Lewis said two reserves from Long Beach have the virus. A starter, catcher Jeffrey Warshauer, complained of stomach cramps after Tuesday’s game.

Even the game was anything but routine for Long Beach.

“Nothing we’ve ever done has come close to this one,” Lewis said. “This was kind of a strange game.”

Ryan Beaver pitched a one-hitter and didn’t give up an earned run, but walked 10 and threw four wild pitches. Then there was some poor baserunning, a bad hop and a passed ball to add to the picture.

New Jersey, which committed three errors, got only three balls out of the infield and one got there on an error.

New Jersey scored four runs during the bottom of the third inning without a hit.

Beaver walked four and threw two wild pitches, catcher Jeffrey Warshauer allowed a run to score on a passed ball and third baseman Ollie Strain-Bay got caught in between hops on a high-bouncing ball that went for a two-run error.

Long Beach, which had never trailed in a game by more than two runs, suddenly found itself behind, 4-1.

But a three-run double by second baseman Alex DeFazio got Long Beach even in the fourth, and shortstop Sean Burroughs doubled home DeFazio with the go-ahead run. First baseman Ryan Stuart gave Long Beach its first and last runs with solo home runs in the first and fifth innings.