GREENVILLE, N.C. — The Mill Creek Little League softball All-Stars rebounded in dominating fashion to stay alive in the Little League World Series on Tuesday.
After opening with a loss to Southeast region champions Florida on Sunday, Mill Creek pitcher Penelope Gahan dominated for Northwest region champion Washington in a 10-0 victory over Westchester-Del Rey Little League of Los Angeles.
Creek’s offense had a big day as well, pounding the West region champions from California for 10 hits and six walks.
Washington will face Florida for a second time at 10 a.m. PDT Wednesday (ESPN2) in the double-elimination tournament at Stallings Stadium. Florida lost 2-1 to Southwest on Monday.
Gahan, who struck out three and walked none, took a perfect game two outs into the bottom of the fifth inning before finally allowing a hit. Mill Creek manager Courtney Brown made a pitching change after the hit as he tries to keep his three pitchers as ready as he can as the team attempts to continue its march toward Sunday’s title game.
“Dude that is so good,” manager Courtney Brown — who was mic’d up — said to Gahan as he made the change. He encouraged Gahan to thank her defense, which did not make an error.
Appropriately, the game ended when California hit into an around-the-horn double play. Third baseman Daphnee Calsyn fielded a sharp ground ball and threw it over to second base, where Reese Caskey stepped on the bag. Caskey flipped it over to Gahan, who finished what she started as a first baseman as a Washington team won a Little League World Series softball game for the first time since 2018.
Mill Creek pounced on California right away in the top of the first.
Anya Miller started a three-run first inning by reaching on a bunt. Molly Joe Sewell was hit by a pitch, and Liliana Delgado — who drove in the final run in extra innings in the Northwest region title game — put the first run on the board on Tuesday with a single to left field. After a second out, Camryn Brown’s hard ground ball up the middle drove in Delgado (2-for-3, two RBI, two runs) and Sewell for a 3-0 advantage.
Brown (2-for-3, four RBI) later continued what Gahan started, pitching the final 1 2/3 innings.
Gahan retired 14 straight batters to open the game as Washington continued to pour it on.
Creek took an 8-0 lead in the top of the third, which began with three straight walks of Mia Bailey, Miller and Sewell. Calsyn and Delgado each singled and drove in a run to push Washington’s lead to 5-0, and California committed its first of four errors as another run scored. Brown drove in the final two runs of the inning with a single off a California player’s glove.
Westchester-Del Rey opened the top of the third with two straight errors, and Bailey walked to load the bases. Miller hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Phoebe Banks for an insurmountable 9-0 advantage.
Banks drove in the game’s final run in the top of the sixth with an RBI groundout that scored Anna Yoo (1-or-1, two walks).
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