LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES : Burroughs’ No-Hitter Fuels Long Beach, 8-0

Sean Burroughs simply wanted the shutout, so when he stepped to the mound with an eight-run lead in the sixth and final inning of the opening round of the Little League World Series on Monday night, he had no idea what was at stake.

He then struck out the side for his second consecutive no-hitter as the Long Beach All-Stars defeated Hamilton, Ohio, 8-0, before 15,000 at Lamade Stadium.

In lowering his earned run average to .036, Burroughs (12-0) struck out a personal-best 16 and walked only two. It was his fourth no-hitter since All-Star play began.

“I didn’t know I had the no-hitter until after the sixth inning,” said Burroughs, son of 1974 American League most valuable player Jeff Burroughs. “In the late innings, I was just trying to get them out.”

Burroughs, whose father coaches the team, also had two singles and scored three runs. His batting average is .696.

Long Beach (20-1), the defending champion, will plays Richmond, Va. (15-2) today at 11 a.m PDT in the round-robin format. Richmond lost its opener, 1-0, to Bedford, N.H.

Long Beach got all the runs it needed in the top of the first inning without the benefit of a hit as Phillip Bell walked the first two batters he faced, Alex DeFazio and Burroughs. DeFazio scored on a wild pitch, and then Burroughs scored on a passed ball.

DeFazio, who is expected to pitch today, led off the fourth inning with a home run to right field. That ignited a four-run burst that included singles by Burroughs, Brady Werner and Timmy Lewis.

Pinch-hitter Brent Kirkland drove in two runs with a double in the sixth.

“We ran into a mountain man tonight,” Ohio Manager Ray Nichting said of Sean Burroughs. “We though we had faced good pitching, but he just took the bat right out of our hands.”

In other games, Panama beat Canada, 6-0, and Germany defeated Saipan, 7-3.