Summerlin South wins U.S. title, to play for LLWS championship — PHOTOS

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Nevada history was made Saturday, and the feat was achieved by a dozen preteen boys.

Summerlin South defeated Fairfield, Connecticut, 8-2 to become the first Nevada team to win the Little League World Series U.S. championship game.

The Nevada boys, representing the Mountain Region, will have an opportunity to add to the books at noon Sunday when they play international champion Chinese Taipei for the title at Lamade Stadium in a game to be televised on ABC.

Taipei edged Santa Cruz (Aruba) 1-0 in the International championship game.

“The enormity of it, there’s nothing we can really do to put it in perspective,” said Summerlin South coach TJ Fechser, whose team improved to 15-1 in the postseason and 5-1 in the LLWS. “It happened game by game by game, and we really had to battle. We just want to enjoy this experience.”

The win avenged Wednesday’s 7-3 loss to Fairfield, the Metro Region champion.

Gallegos comes through again

Starting pitcher Garrett Gallegos, who has carried Summerlin South through the tournament, was the hero again Saturday. The right-hander struck out eight while allowing five hits in five innings. He also smashed a home run to lead off the fourth inning and made a diving tag on a runner caught between third and home in the fifth.

“After the first inning, I just got the hang of it,” said an emotional Gallegos, who noted his awareness that it was his final Little League pitching victory. “Sometimes first innings are a little rough, with things like the crowd.”

Gallegos threw 33 pitches in a shaky first inning, but worked out of a jam and emerged with a 3-1 lead with the help of a timely two-run single by Grayson Miranda in the top of the inning.

Gallegos then struck out the next five batters.

“That was just setting the tone in a positive fashion,” Fechser said. “(First-inning leads) can establish how things are going to go in the rest of the game.”

Gallegos made the score 4-1 with his fourth-inning blast before Fairfield closed it to 4-2 in the bottom of the inning by scoring during a rundown on a fielder’s choice.

Fairfield nearly cut its deficit to 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth, but Gallegos cut off the run with a diving tag after a perfect throw from right fielder Cutter Ricafort to the plate on a hit.

Summerlin South blew the game open in the sixth, getting four runs on three hits and two walks and capping the scoring with a two-run single by Ricafort.

Fechser said the key was his team’s ability to hit Fairfield ace Luca Pellegrini, who primarily throws fastballs and had dominated hitters in two previous starts, allowing a total of one run, three hits and striking out 17. But he gave up six earned runs and eight hits in 5⅓ innings against Summerlin South.

“We take disciplined at-bats,” said Fechser, whose team had nine hits. “We’ve always been a strong hitting team. We got our feet down, and we drove the baseball.”

Pitching favors Taipei

Summerlin South will have three pitchers ineligible Sunday because of the mandatory rest rules, including Gallegos, so the team might need another strong offensive day to pull off a victory.

The Nevada team is expected to face Taipei ace Lin Chin-Tse, who has given up no runs and one hit while throwing fastballs as high as 82 mph in the tournament.

But Miranda said he and his teammates will consider that later, choosing instead to focus on Saturday’s final out.

“That was the moment we knew we were the best team in the USA,” he said. “We know we still have to go out and get one more tomorrow.”

Summerlin South was the second Nevada team to reach the U.S. championship game, but the first to win it on the field. Mountain Ridge was named the U.S. champion in 2014, six months after an elimination loss to Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West, which was stripped of its title for using ineligible players.

Win or lose Sunday, a celebratory parade for Summerlin South is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, a Downtown Summerlin spokesperson said Saturday.

International championship game

Liu Wei-Heng pitched 5⅓ innings for Taipei, which will attempt to win its first LLWS title since 1996.

Chen Shi-Hong scored the game’s only run. He led off the third inning with a walk, advanced on a passed ball and a single, then scored on an errant throw.

Liu allowed four hits and struck out seven to lead Taipei to its third shutout in four games at the tournament.

Taiwan has won 17 LLWS titles, including five straight from 1977 to 1981, the most of any country besides the United States.

Contact Jeff Wollard at jwollard@reviewjournal.com.