Yorba Hills Strikes Out in U.S. Final : Little League: Yorba Linda team can’t handle fastballs from Spring, Tex., pitcher Cepeda, who fans 13 in 3-1 victory.

When it came down to it, Michael Cepeda’s fastball was even better than anyone from Yorba Hills figured it would be Thursday afternoon.

And fastballs were what Yorba Hills feared most.

Cepeda, clocked as high as 71 m.p.h., gave up only two hits and struck out 13 Yorba Hills batters to lead Northwest 45 Little League of Spring, Tex., to a 3-1 victory over Yorba Hills in the United States championship game at the 49th Little League World Series.

Spring plays Taiwan in Saturday’s World Series final at Lamade Stadium. Taiwan took seven innings before it scored on a wild pitch to edge the Dominican Republic, 1-0, in the International final. Taiwan entered the game having outscored its opponents, 167-4.

With an announced crowd of 22,000 and a national television audience watching, Spring had a much more difficult time dispatching the Yorba Linda team this time.

In pool play on Tuesday, the Texans won handily, 8-2, behind hard-throwing right-hander Wardell Starling III. Starling, clocked in the mid-60s, struck out 10 but gave up six hits and three walks. Most Yorba Hills players thought they would face Starling again and they felt confident they would do better given a second chance. No one suspected Spring had a guy such as Cepeda who could throw even harder.

Until Wednesday night, Spring Manager Don Turley planned to start Starling again. That was before Cepeda pleaded with his coaches just before bedtime in the team’s quarters for the starting assignment.

Coach Lynn Foster conferred with Turley and they relented.

They were glad they did.

“People here today got to see the Michael Cepeda we all know at home,” Foster said. Cepeda was highly touted upon arriving here but had performed below expectations until Thursday, in the field and at the plate.

Lynn said once they made the decision to pitch Cepeda, he and Turley just hoped he would be sharp.

“Our strategy was to put Michael Cepeda on the hill and watch the other team strike out,” Lynn said.

Cepeda did his part, striking out eight of the first 10 batters he faced. He walked one and only three reached base. His only mistake was a hanging curveball in the top of the fourth, which Nash Robertson hit over the fence in straightaway center field, not far from where teammate David Nicholson made the catch of the series during Wednesday’s 8-3 victory over Toms River, N.J.

Robertson’s line-drive home run tied the score, 1-1.

“A teammate picked up their pitching signs and he told me what was coming,” Robertson said. “The curveball broke right over the middle of the plate, I kept my head down and swung hard.”

For most of the day, the majority of players on Yorba Hills just swung hard and missed.

Robertson’s homer was the last hit Yorba Hills would get. Cepeda retired seven of the last eight batters he faced.

Yorba Hills expected heat from Texas, so in batting practice before the game, Coach Bill Rooney pitched harder than usual.

“We’ve hit guys who are up in the 70s before,” Rooney said. “But, man, this guy just threw right through us.”

Despite Cepeda’s dominance, his team didn’t have the game in hand until the last of the fifth inning.

Yorba Hills pitcher Brian Nolan pitched out of a jam with two runners on in the first inning, then gave up a run on two doubles in the second. He was removed in favor of Nicholson, who got the final two outs in the inning.

Nicholson got stronger as the game progressed, striking out the side in the fourth.

But in the top of the fifth, leadoff hitter Kyle Foster, who has nine hits in 13 trips to the plate in the series, doubled to right-center field. Chris Conway singled, sending Foster to third and then Conway stole second base.

Cepeda, who was only three for 11 when he stepped to the plate, drove in Foster with a sacrifice fly to center. After Starling, who started in right field, grounded out, Kristopher DuConge, batting .625 in the series, doubled home Conway.

The top of the Yorba Hills lineup was punchless in the top of the sixth. Cepeda struck out Patrick Rooney, a .454 hitter, to end the game.