Having watched a lot of the Little League World Series, I had to smile about one of the ESPN commentators making this observation last night.
The situation was Southwest team from (Lufkin,TX) was rolling over Conn. by about 12-2 at the time, after SW got 8 runs in bottom of first off three Conn. errors. A victory would cause a rematch for SW with the Southeast (Greenville, NC) team, which beat them 2-1 in 7 innings Wed. The nucleus of the comment was about the pitching of Matthew Matthijs, who simply took the air out of room on SW, striking out 12 of 14 he faced, including the last 11 batters of the game, with only *63* pitches.
THAT is just cockin’ and firin’ pitching.
The verdict was, how could you *possibly* take him out when he was pitching like that?
Hunter Ditsworth of TX team was sort of remarkable too, keeping Greenville scoreless from 1st inning until he ran out of pitches (85 is the limit, he threw 88 over 5 innings because he was mid-batter), and this was *great* baseball, the proverbial “too bad someone has to lose” game.
It brought a smile to see three Greenville coaches doing some chin-stroking as Matthijs got to the 55 pitch level, the question being whether to save him for another game, because Greenville has operated with a ‘three headed monster’ pitching staff vs. having anyone go a whole game and be unavailable for 4-5 days. The verdict was, how could you *possibly* take him out when pitching like that? and being under 65, he is actually available for World Series finale if Greenville wins American half of tournament.
And yes, Lufkin will be glad to see *anybody* else.
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