Moorpark Tied With Issaquah After 13 Innings, 0-0
To be continued . . .
The longest game in Little League Western Regional history has yet to end. Moorpark and Issaquah, Wash., played 13 scoreless innings and the game is suspended until today at 9 a.m.
The winner must defeat Pearl City, Hawaii, twice to advance to the Little League World Series, which begins Monday.
Erik Johnson and Aaron Garcia combined to hold Issaquah to six hits. Moorpark also had six hits.
Garcia pitched eight shutout innings before giving way to Johnson. Garcia did not strike out a batter until the eighth, but the defense committed no errors behind him.
Excellent plays were turned in by each Moorpark infielder, the best being a stab of a sharp ground ball by second baseman Mike Lopez with two out and runners on second and third in the eighth.
Issaquah center fielder Derek Decater made diving catches on leadoff hits in the third and sixth innings, plays that proved important because Moorpark went on to get two runners aboard in each inning. Pinch-hitter Robbie Jaegge and Keith Pabers walked to open the Moorpark seventh and bring up the top of the order, but Danny Gronski bore down and retired three in a row.
Moorpark wasted an opportunity in the eighth when, with two on and none out, a runner was detected leaving a base too soon on a sacrifice bunt. The runners returned to first and second, which proved costly when Tommy Gunn hit a two-out infield single that would have scored a runner from third.
Moorpark also had a chance to score in the fifth when, with two out, Pabers hit an infield single and Johnson doubled on a chopping ground ball over the second baseman’s head. However, Gronski struck out Blake Sharpe, the only Moorpark batter who had reached base in his first two at-bats.
A fine play by Sharpe, the Moorpark shortstop, thwarted an Issaquah rally in the sixth, and Garcia sailed through the seventh.
The first six innings flew by like Gronski’s hard stuff. Moorpark had a runner in the first on Sharpe’s ground-ball single up the middle, and two runners in the third when Pabers walked and Sharpe was hit by a pitch.
But Gronski ended each of the first three innings by freezing a Moorpark batter with a curveball on the inside part of the plate. Gronski struck out two in each of the first three innings, and had 12 strikeouts in nine innings.
*
The other seven World Series teams are determined. The West representative will face East champion Cranston, R.I., on Monday at 5 p.m. Also from the United States are South champion Panama City, Fla., and Central champion Marshalltown, Iowa. San Isidro, D.R., will represent Latin America, Surrey, B.C., will represent Canada, Hsung City, Taiwan, will represent the Far East, and Saudia Arabia will represent Europe.
Moorpark 0, Issaquah 0
Issaquah: 000 000 000 000 0 -- 0 6 2
Moorpark: 000 000 000 000 0 -- 0 6 1
Garcia, Johnson (9) and Pabers; Gronski, Decater (10) and Rekdahl.
W-- L-- S--.
2B: MP--Johnson. I--Starner.
Records: Moorpark 16-3, 4-1; Issaquah 15-2, 4-1.
