Ohio and Texas survive in the elimination round of the Major Little League Baseball World Series

Ohio survives one more time, but surprising New Hampshire, in one of its rare Major Little League Baseball World Series, came close to coming from behind in Wednesday morning‘s elimination game at Howard M. Lamarde Stadium in South Williamsport, Pa.

The Great Lakes Region runner-up, the Ohio team from Hamilton, hung on to oust New Hampshire’s New England Region champion from Hooksett, 3-2.

This was game one of the four scheduled, and in the other elimination contest, it was Texas West’s Wylie LL Southwest Region runner-up from Abilene going against the Midwest Region champs from Hastings Nebraska.

Following these two are a pair of winner’s bracket tests. In game three, it’s South Dakota against Southern California, and in the finale, it’s Michigan versus Hawaii. All four won region titles to get this far in double-elimination.

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Ohio was cruising along. It scored once each in the first two innings and right-handed starter Kalb Harden was breezing along with seven strikeouts, one walk, and had allowed but one hit. But after he made his 86th limited pitch on the third out in the bottom of the fifth, Ohio already had nine hits, but did not score in the top of the sixth and had to use a new hurler in the New Hampshire sixth.

And that’s where it got sticky. New Hampshire got the lead-off batter on with a 3-2 walk, and the next hitter was hit by a pitch. But after a ground out that moved the runners up, Lucier, swinging from the left side, unloaded on the first-pitch fastball, and boom, it was gone, lone gone over the right field fence to trim the gap to 3-2.

But Ohio managed to bail out, getting a pop up to shortstop and a bouncer to first base. Now, 3-1, it took a collective deep breath, celebrated, and now gets to play the Texas-Nebraska survivor in another winner advances and loser goes home.

So now New Hampshire joins Connecticut, Tennessee, Florida, Washington, New Jersey and Oregon on the elimination list. The Texas-Nebraska loser would be the eighth to exit, and would leave eight still in the hunt.

But game 2 became no contest. After two scoreless innings, Texas scored once each in the third and fourth frames, and piled on eight more runs in the bottom of the fifth, and it was now 10-0 and mercy-rule times.

Meanwhile, starting Texas pitcher Carter Nelson, with Ellla Bruning behind the plate as the only girl in the World Series, was in command on the hill. He coasted along with nine strikeouts, walked one, and allowed just three hits. But he didn’t have to pitch the final innings as the run-rule was applied for the first time in this World Series.

The Texas team that lost in the Southwest Region final to Louisiana collected a grand total of 14 hits, stole three bases, and played sparkling defense. In the 8-run fifth, it got its lone home run of the World Series on a 3-run blast by Dylan Regala, the head coach’s son, over the fence in right field. That actually began the burst and put his side up 5-0.