Yorba Hills Falls When Defense Springs a Leak Against Texas

The official scorebook at the Little League World Series lists only one error committed by the Yorba Hills team Tuesday night.

Official books don’t count mental mistakes, of which the Yorba Hills team had plenty in an 8-2 loss to Northwest 45 Little League of Spring, Tex., in a second-round game at Lamade Stadium.

With the victory, Spring qualified for the U.S. championship game, at 1:30 p.m. (PDT) Thursday, regardless of the outcome of today’s game against Little Lakes West of Arden Hills, Minn. Spring (22-2) has won 12 consecutive games.

Yorba Hills must defeat Toms River (N.J.) Little League at 10 a.m. today to set up a rematch with Spring in the U.S. championship. A loss and it’s an early flight home.

The loss ended a 10-game winning streak for Yorba Hills.

“I think we fell asleep and they took advantage of it,” Yorba Hills Manager Roy Watson said. “Defensively, this is as close to the worst we have played.”

Three wild pitches, two passed balls that put runners in scoring positions, several defensive lapses that allowed Spring runners to take extra bases and numerous bobbles all contributed to Yorba Hills’ downfall before an announced crowd of 16,000.

A flu virus that struck both teams also took its toll. Four Yorba Hills were under the weather. Spring catcher Kris DuConge, who was two for two with two runs batted in, almost didn’t play because he was ill.

“I give him a lot of credit,” Spring Coach Lynn Foster said.

Yorba Hills had difficulty figuring out Spring pitcher Wardell Starling III. Starling struck out 10 batters and gave up six hits, and was in trouble only once. That came in the second inning when he surrendered consecutive home runs to A.J. Shappi and Brett Miller, tying the score at 2-2.

But a passed ball by Yorba Hills catcher Michael Watson, and his ensuing throwing error, allowed Spring to score two runs. Spring added four more in the fifth inning and that was that.

Shappi, the winning pitcher in last Friday’s 4-2 championship victory over Petaluma Valley at the Western Regional, struggled with his control.

“I couldn’t get my curveball over all the time and I couldn’t place my fastball,” he said. Brian Nolan replaced him with runners on second and third and no outs in the top of the fifth.

Shappi said the team went into the game with their minds on other things, especially after it thumped Little Lakes West, 17-5, in Monday’s opener.

“All the guys are thinking about are all the autograph requests we’re getting and all the equipment and sponsorship things like bats, batting gloves and stuff they’re giving us,” he said. “We have to forget about that now.”

Toms River (21-4) defeated Arden Hills, 11-4, Tuesday by banging out 11 hits, including two home runs, against three pitchers.

In the International bracket Tuesday, Taiwan’s game with Saudi Arabia was called after 3 1/2 innings because of the 10-run mercy rule. Taiwan led, 12-0. Taiwan (11-0) plays Canada (14-4), which lost to the Dominican Republic, 7-2. The Dominican Republic (13-2) plays Saudi Arabia (8-2).

The division winners play for the championship Saturday.