SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — As things seemed to be falling apart for the Mill Creek Little League all-star team in Friday’s regional championship game, team manager Courtney Brown calmly walked out to the pitching circle.
Oregon had just broken through with the first run of the game in the top of the fifth inning, and two runners stood on base. Brown, who had challenged a bang-bang safe call at first base, said various combinations of “we’re good/great/fine/cool/perfect” 17 times during the visit as he attempted to calm Creek’s nerves.
“Relax, girls — we’re cool,” said Brown, who was mic’d up on the ESPN broadcast. “We’re going to get runs.”
He wasn’t kidding about scoring runs.
Mill Creek staged a pair of dramatic comebacks to win the Northwest Region Tournament Championship, 10-9, after Liliana Delgado’s walkoff single in the eighth inning.
Brown lost that replay challenge, but won the war.
Mill Creek, known as Team Washington during the tournament at the West Region Little League Complex, earned a spot in the Little League World Series, August 3-10 in Greenville, N.C. Mill Creek will open against Southeast champion Lake Mary Little League of Florida on Aug. 3. Game times and broadcast were not published as of press time.
It’s the first trip to the softball World Series for Mill Creek, which lost the West Region championship game, 1-0, in extra innings in 2017.
Prior to heading to San Bernardino, Delgado mentioned that unity was a major strength for the team.
“Hitting and communication are our strengths,” Delgado said in July 16 at the team’s practice. “Like not getting into fights and arguing.”
Those communication skills and support of each other seemed to carry Creek through some dire moments in Friday’s matchup.
A game that was scoreless after four innings turned into a slugfest won by Washington. Mill Creek crossed home plate four times in the sixth inning to send the game into extra innings. Oregon seemed to finally put Creek away with three runs in the top of the eighth, but a second four-run inning gave Washington the dramatic win.
Trailing 9-6 heading into the bottom of the eighth, Mill Creek continued the power surge it discovered late in regulation.
Kaitlyn Stetich, placed on second base as the extra-innings automatic runner, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored when Mila Bailey (1-for-2, two runs) reached first on a dropped third strike. After Washington leadoff hitter Anya Miller (1-for-2, two walks, two runs) walked, Bailey scored on a slap infield single from Mary Joe Sewell to pull Creek within a run.
With Sewell (2-for-3, two walks, two RBI, two runs) at third and Miller at second, Sewell came home on a dropped third strike to tie the score at 9-9.
Delgado (2-for-3, walk, three RBI), the starting catcher, walked up to the plate with Miller at third and a chance for glory.
After taking an inside pitch for ball one, Delgado laced a single into center field — her second of two clutch hits — to send Washington to the World Series.
Miller started in the circle for Washington, allowing three runs (one earned), five hits and a walk while striking out two in 4 2/3 innings. Penelope Gahan (four hits, two runs, two walks, two strikeouts) earned the win after pitching the final two innings of the game in her first outing of the series.
The second comeback was set up by the first one in the bottom of the sixth. With her team trailing 5-1, Bailey reached with a perfect bunt single down the first baseline. After a Miller walk, Oregon manager Jon Levy visited the pitching circle.
“It’s 5-1,” he said on the broadcast. “These runs don’t matter. … Here’s what we need — we need outs. We need outs. Three outs.”
His team got them, but not before Creek sent the game into extra innings.
Sewell and Daphnee Calsyn both hit RBI singles to narrow the gap to two runs. Delgado then watched five pitches go by — three straight balls followed by two strikes — before a season-saving swing. She smashed a low pitch to the wall in right field, giving Sewell and Calsyn more than enough time to run home.
Mill Creek tried to win it in regulation with a squeeze bunt, but Hermiston relief pitcher Reese Headley made a spectacular play to field the ball and tag out Delgado a few feet away from a wild victory that would come two innings later.
Donations to support the team’s World Series expenses can be made HERE.
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