WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — The Pacific All-Stars run at the 2014 Little League World Series is over.
Pacific lost 11-4 to Pearland, Texas, Monday in a loser-out game. Lynnwood-based Pacific, which features 12- and 13-year-olds from Lynnwood and Edmonds, is just the second Snohomish County team to reach the World Series.
But the team from Washington isn’t ready to return home just yet.
“We’re here until the thing ends. Then we’ll leave the next day,” said Pacific manager Robley Corsi, Jr.
The World Series continues with games Tuesday through Sunday’s championship game.
“We’re going to go root on all our buddies,” Corsi said of the other teams in the Series.
Pacific, which lost its Series opener to the Midwest champion from Chicago before defeating South Dakota in a loser-out game, finished the Series with a 1-2 record.
“After the game everyone asked me, ‘How are the kids handling the loss?’” Corsi said. “The same way they handled the win. These kids are fine. These kids are resilient. All I said is, ‘Congratulations.’ This has been a great run.”
Corsi said the Pacific players are going to enjoy their final days in Williamsport before returning home. Pacific will try to play a exhibition game with the team from Perth, Australia, and play a little more ping pong.
“We’re going to keep hanging out, playing some baseball and having fun,” Corsi said. “I think everybody’s having a ball. It’s just an incredible experience.
“And we get to play more ping pong. Now we have a ping pong tournament instead of a baseball tournament.”
Pearland, the champion of the Southwest regional, took a 1-0 lead in the first. Layne Roblyer hit his second home run in as many days, a three-run homer, in the third inning to give the Texas team a 4-0 lead.
Pearland increased its lead to 5-0 in the top of the fourth before Pacific got on the board.
Pacific’s Colton Walsh led off the bottom of the fourth with a double, the first of four consecutive hits. Tyler Durbin, Tygan Duncan and Karsen Tjarneberg each had an RBI hit as Pacific scored three runs, cutting Pearland’s lead to 5-3.
The teams exchanged runs in the fifth, with Durbin getting his second RBI hit of the game.
Pearland scored five runs on two wild pitches, a passed ball and a single in the sixth to seal the victory. The Texas team plays Chicago in a loser-out game Tuesday.
Each team had eight hits in the game.
“I think we matched those guys hit for hit,” said Corsi. “We just walked them. We had nine walks, two hit batters and they were able to convert.”
Tjarneberg had two hits and an RBI, Walsh had two hits and scored a run and Durbin had two hits, two RBI and scored a run for Pacific.
“He’s been our offensive catalyst the whole time that we’ve been here,” Corsi said of Durbin. “It was that way (at the regional tournament) in San Bernardino too.”
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