It’s Tough Being a Kid

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Gabriel Alvarez was hitless in four Little League World Series games.

Then came the fifth game.

Alvarez’s three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning helped Guadalupe, Mexico, rally from a three-run deficit Saturday to defeat South Mission Viejo, 5-4, and win the 51st World Series at Lamade Stadium.

South Mission Viejo starter Gavin Fabian had a no-hitter through five innings in front of an announced crowd of 37,400.

However, Fabian, looking for his third consecutive victory in the series, opened the sixth by hitting Luis Robles with a pitch, and Robles promptly stole second base. Fabian, who had not allowed an earned run in his last 12 innings, then walked Juan de Dios Garza. When Gabriel Alvarez worked the count to 2-0, South Mission Viejo Manager Jim Gattis replaced Fabian with Adam Sorgi.

Sorgi, who threw four scoreless innings in a 9-0 victory over Dyer, Ind., in pool play, got two quick strikes on Alvarez. But Alvarez turned on the next pitch, a fastball inside, driving it over the left-center field wall.

A stunned Sorgi, with tears in his eyes, struggled to go on. After a conversation with his manager, Sorgi walked Javier de Isla, who was batting for only the second time in the series. Then Sorgi was replaced by Ryan O’Donovan, who had pitched one inning Wednesday. He was greeted by a sacrifice bunt from Daniel Baca, who was hitless in four series at-bats, and Isla advanced to second.

With first base open, O’Donovan pitched to the red-hot Pablo Torres, who lashed a sharp line drive into center field for a base hit, and when center fielder Ashton White couldn’t come up with the ball, Isla scored the winning run.

Just like that, the South Mission Viejo dream to become only the fourth team from Southern California--and first from Orange County--to win the Little League World Series, was over.

Stunned supporters didn’t know what to do. Their plastic penny-shakers went silent and they just stared onto the field, where White lay crying in the shadows on the outfield grass while the Guadalupe players streamed onto the field and celebrated to chants of “Toro! Toro!” from a handful of supporters who made their way to central Pennsylvania from Mexico. Guadalupe finished the season 27-2.

“In baseball you get what you deserve,” South Mission Viejo Coach Jim Gattis said. “And today we got what we deserved. We did not play well, and when you play a fine team like Mexico, you are going to get beat if you are not ready to play.”

This was not a typical game for South Mission Viejo (21-2), which had scored 33 runs in four previous tournament victories here.

“I think we wanted this one too much,” Fabian said. “We wanted to win real bad . . . too hard, I guess.”

Guadalupe could only celebrate. It was a double treat for the players, a team spokesman said, pointing out that the World Series championship came 40 years after a team from Monterrey, Mexico, won the Little League World Series title by beating a team from La Mesa, Calif., with Angel Macias pitching a perfect game.

Macias and his teammates have become legends around metropolitan Monterrey, which includes Guadalupe. In preparation for Saturday’s game, the Mexican players spent part of Friday night watching a 16-millimeter movie that had been transferred to videotape that detailed the accomplishments of that earlier team. Players said it was inspirational.

Gattis probably wished he had a similar inspirational device for his team, but the last team from the county--Northwood from Irvine--lost to Taiwan in the championship game, 21-1.

South Mission Viejo committed three errors Saturday.

“Today we didn’t play as a unit,” Gattis said. “We were trying too hard. The kids didn’t play good defense. It was very upsetting [to see] their attitudes. I saw kids strike out and instead of getting ready to go out and play good defense, they would sit down in the dugout the rest of the inning. We were just out of whack.”

Gattis said he actually began to worry after South Mission Viejo took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, thanks to a double by Fabian, a couple of throwing errors and a home run by Nick Moore, his third of the series. The runs were the first allowed in five games by Guadalupe, which entered the game as the only team to reach the Little League World Series final without giving up a run in pool play.

Guadalupe Manager Jaime Luna pulled starting pitcher Alvarez in favor of Pablo Torres, who held South Mission Viejo in check for most of the rest of the game. He struck out seven of the 11 batters he faced by mixing off-speed pitches with an occasional fastball.

Guadalupe scored a run in the bottom of the fifth thanks to two South Mission Viejo errors, only the club’s third and fourth miscues of the five-game series.

South Mission Viejo responded in the top of the sixth, getting a double from outfielder Brian Kraker for openers. Pinch-hitter Matt Cusick bounced a single up the middle and then they combined on a double steal for a run when the throw to home came in too high and too late.

Alvarez, who under Little League rules was allowed to reenter the game, returned in the top of the sixth to play in the outfield. He said he went to the plate looking for a fast ball he could hit.

“That play ignited us like a firecracker,” Luna said.

And South Mission Viejo’s chances exploded with it.