LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES : Yorba Linda Whiffs in Bid

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 to lead Spring, Tex., to a 3-1 victory over Yorba Hills of Yorba Linda in the U.S. 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 tougher time dispatching Yorba Hills this time. In pool play earlier in the week, the Texans won handily, 8-2, behind hard-throwing right-handed pitcher Wardell Starling III. Starling, clocked in the mid 60s, struck out 10 batters 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 who could throw harder.

Until late 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 assignment.

Coach Lynn Foster talked with Turley and they relented.

“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 walked one and only three reached base. His only mistake was a hanging curveball in the top of the fourth inning, which Nash Robertson hit over the fence in straightaway center field.

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

That was the last hit Yorba Hills got. Cepeda retired seven of the last eight batters.

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 is nine for 13 in the series, doubled. Chris Conway singled, sending Foster to third and then Conway stole second base.

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

The top of the Yorba Hills lineup was punchless in the sixth. When Cepeda struck out Patrick Rooney, a .454 hitter, the Yorba Linda dream had ended.