South Mission Viejo Reaches Series Final

South Mission Viejo Manager Jim Gattis took a walk between games Thursday, traversing the steep, grassy hill from Lamade Stadium to the team bunkhouse.

Gattis was worried that his team was flat. Gattis wasn’t sure Ashton White, the starting pitcher in the U.S. championship game was mentally ready to go and he didn’t like that his team would face Bradenton, Fla., after beating the same team on opening night.

“Those guys can hit the ball,” he said.

Gattis worries too much.

South Mission Viejo scored eight runs on 11 hits in the first three innings Thursday, putting its manager at ease, while quickly turning the U.S. championship game into a rout with a 12-1, five-inning victory in front of an announced crowd of 17,800.

South Mission Viejo became only the second Orange County team to advance to the Little League World Series championship game, equaling the feat of Irvine Northwood a decade ago. It plays Nuevo Leon, Mexico, which recorded its fourth consecutive shutout of the tournament with a 1-0 victory over Yokohama, Japan, in the International championship final earlier Thursday. Northwood fell to Taiwan, 21-1, in the 1987 World Series final.

South Mission Viejo’s victory over Bradenton, cut an inning short because of Little League’s 10-run mercy rule, capped a long day for both teams. A rain delay Wednesday forced both teams to play their final game in pool play early Thursday to decide who would advance to the title game. Bradenton opened at 5:30 a.m. PDT with an 8-2 victory over Dyer, Ind., while South Mission Viejo finished its 3-0 victory over Pottsville, Pa., just a little more than three hours before the national championship contest began at 5.

Gattis was so concerned before meeting Bradenton, that not long after the victory over Pottsville, he rousted his players out of their living quarters on a hill overlooking Lamade Stadium and marched them down to the batting cages in muggy, 75-degree weather.

“We felt really tight in the first game and seemed to be playing tentative,” Gattis said. “We made the decision to go hit. We weren’t very pleased with our performance.”

The strategy paid off. Even Gattis conceded that the 15-hit barrage Thursday night was “the best we have done in some while.”

No Orange County team has won this tournament, but judging by its performance Thursday, South Mission Viejo, which takes a 14-game winning streak into Saturday’s final, is peaking at the right time. Pitcher Gavin Fabian hurled a one-hitter, struck out five and served up 13 ground-ball outs against Pottsville.

Against Bradenton, the right-handed White was not quite as sharp as he was in two previous complete-game victories in the Western Regionals, where he struck out a combined 27 batters. He walked four, but his fastball was clocked as high as 74 miles an hour and he struck out five and gave up two hits.

White, who has been flirting with the outfield fence all tournament, got his first home run of the week, a towering drive over the right-field fence that was estimated to have traveled 235 feet. The three-run home run was part of a four-run second inning for South Mission Viejo that staked the team to a 7-1 lead. White drove in six runs and now has eight home runs in all-star play and 13 runs batted in and five runs scored in the series. He has reached base safely in 10 of his 13 plate appearances.

Light-hitting catcher Adam Elconin hit the first home run of his all-star career, in the third inning over the right-center field fence. Elconin went three for three with two runs batted in, bringing his total number of hits against Bradenton to five.

First baseman Nick Moore had three hits, including a solo homer in the three-run first. He drove in two runs.

“I was looking for a fastball and I got it,” Moore said.

Adam Sorgi, one of two players being considered for the start Saturday against Mexico, got two hits and walked twice. Fabian is the other potential starter.

Bradenton Coach Mike Kennedy planned to start either Ryan Kennedy or Lastings Milledge, a pair of hard-throwing right handers, but when the day started both reported that they had sore arms.

Kennedy opted for left-hander Brandon Noel.

“He throws a little slower than our other pitchers and we know they hit the fastball, so we thought we would try him,” Kennedy said. “We just didn’t hit the ball. White was really throwing that tater.”

The soft-spoken White, son of former USC running back and 1979 Heisman Trophy winner Charles White, said he didn’t think this was his best effort, but that it was good enough.

“I just tried to stay in a zone, do the basic mechanics and throw,” he said.

Pottsville went into the final pool-play game with a difficult task, knowing it had to win and hold South Mission Viejo to eight runs or fewer to advance to the championship game. Pottsville came into the game having allowed seven runs in its last 26 innings.

But the Pennsylvanians were no match for Fabian. His performance took the announced crowd of 15,200 mostly Pottsville rooters out of the game.

“I pretended they weren’t there,” Fabian said. “I pretended like it was just like warmups when no one is around.”

Fabian said he found out 45 minutes before game time that he was going to be on the mound.

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Little League World Series at a Glance

* What: 51st Little League World Series

* Where: Williamsport, Pa.

* Stadium: Howard J. Lamade (25,000)

* Length of game: Six innings

* Field: Grass

* Bases: 60 feet

* Pitching mound: 48 feet from home plate

* Fences: 200 feet

* Championship game: South Mission Viejo vs. Nuevo Leon, Mexico, Saturday, 12:30 p.m. PDT, Channels 7, 10.