It's not often that a Little League baseball team doesn't get a hit through six innings. It's even rarer when that team somehow manages to win the game after not garnering a single hit prior to extra innings.
In a superb pitching duel, Japan, who was held hitless through six frames, scratched out a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to spoil Mexico's bid at reaching the Little League World Series Championship for the first time in seven years, winning 1-0 to advance to the final against Pennsylvania at 3 pm on Sunday afternoon.
Armando Verdugo and Kabu Kikuchi took the hill for Mexico and Japan, respectively. Both pitchers fired complete games; Verdugo gave up just the single run over 6.2 innings of two-hit ball, striking out ten batters.
Kikuchi went all seven frames, surrendering four hits but also notching ten Ks.
Japan threatened first, putting runners on first and second with nobody out in the bottom of the first, courtesy of a walk and a botched ground ball. However, Verdugo struck out the next batter before inducing a double-play ground ball to escape the jam.
Mexico mounted their biggest threat in the top of the second inning, garnering two singles to put runners at first and second with one out. However, Kikuchi got the next batter to fly out and then froze the next batter with strike three to end the inning.
After both hurlers escaped the mini-jams, they were lights out on the mound. After the first inning, Verdugo did not allow a baserunner until the sixth, retiring sixteen straight batters.
Kikuchi was excellent in firing consecutive 1-2-3 innings after the second frame, but ran into a little trouble in the fifth inning. After a leadoff double from Daniel Zaragoza, Mexico sacrificed a special pinch runner to third base with one out. It looked like they might finally reward Verdugo for his superb pitching. However, Kikuchi struck out the next two batters to end the threat.
Mexico garnered their final hit in the sixth inning with a leadoff single, however the runner was erased one batter later on a double-play ground ball. Verdugo allowed his first baserunner since the first inning in the sixth frame when Shingo Tomita reached on a two-base error. A groundout ended the inning, sending the game to extra innings.
It took Kikuchi just eleven pitches to breeze through a perfect seventh inning, setting the stage for Japan's heroics.
Verdugo entered the inning having thrown 69 pitches. The maximum is 85, so Verdugo needed to have an economical inning in order to be eligible to pitch the eighth inning. However, he finally cracked, surrendering consecutive base hits, a single and a double, to quickly put two runners in scoring position.
A defensive miscue ended up being costly to Mexico. The next batter struck out but reached first on the dropped third strike. The consequent batter struck out swinging and Verdugo was left to face his final batter of the night, having thrown 84 pitches.
The dropped third strike was costly because Verdugo induced a ground ball that would have been the third out of the inning. Instead, Mexico attempted to turn a double play but the batter Koki Jo beat out the relay throw, allowing the runner on third to score, giving Japan the walk-off 1-0 victory.
In four games, Japan has outscored their opponents by a mere six runs and has gone to extra innings twice.
Mexico continues to struggle in the International Championship, losing for the fourth time since 2008 when they won the International Bracket. It's the third time that they've lost to Japan in the International Final. Mexico has also only lost to Japan in the past three years.
Japan is now 4-0 and faces the fellow undefeated squad in Pennsylvania for the championship tomorrow. Japan is in the championship for the fifth time in six years.