Little League officials rescheduled the softball World Series championship

Surprise, while watching the earlier softball game for third place in the girl’s Little League World Series, came the score of the later contest for the championship.

It just so happened that the ages 10-12 title game was already played, much earlier than scheduled because of an expected later downpour. That’s right, the Southwest Texas team from Austin had already been crowned champion at Greenville, N.C., and at 5 o’clock it was no longer on the tubes.

The rain let up around the time that the consolation game pairing the Southeast team from Virginia against the Philippines. So you watched the SE shut down the Philippines, 6-0, and also the final score of the title game, 5-4 Southwest over the Mid-Atlantic, which happened to be the team out of Maryland.

But that’s how it went. When the heavy rain was predicted for the late afternoon, there was no way TV could reschedule it, but the Little League officials could. And with that, 11-year-old Texan southpaw Zeneria Hughes continued to mow down the batters, striking out nine, walking two and yielding six hits.

For Maryland, 12-year-old righthander Cari Richards, quite taller then Hughes, was in the circle as she whiffed five, issued three passes, and was reached for seven hits.

And if you want to know, all this was gathered from the tape of the game shown later. Well, that was nice except you already knew the final score.

Southwest, whose lone loss was to North Carolina, which was ousted in the elimination round, had previously defeated Maryland, Virginia, and the Philippines, but this one wasn’t easy. After Hughes fanned the side in the top of the first, SW scored once in the bottom of the inning on back-to-back singles and a throwing error in the infield.

The second frame was scoreless, but in the top of the third, Maryland tied the score on a one-out double to the right field fence followed by a stolen base and base hit up the middle.

It remained 1-1 after three. In the fourth, Maryland lined a double past first, a throwing error moved the runner to third, and a wild pitch gave it the lead at 2-1. In the last of the Inning, back came the Texas kids with the tying run on a one-out miscue at the circle, a stolen base, and a safety past third base.

After the fifth inning, it was 4-2 Southwest when Hughes helped her own cause with a two-out double to left-center field and came around on a single that bounced off second base. Then it was back-to-back walks and a throwing error by the catcher that made it 5-2.

In its last at bat, Mid-Atlantic came close to deadlocking it. It put two runners aboard with two down, a hit past the shortstop brought in one run, and the second came right after on a wild throw home. But the last out occurred on a ball hit by Richards that was caught in centerfield.

It was the initial time that the World Series usually played in Portland, Ore,, relocated to the Elm Street Park in Greenville.

Most of the big travel was taken by the Philippines, and it was by far the longest. It began with a six-hour flight that forced not one, but two stops of about three hours where the team had to change flights after hanging out at this stop.

But to hear the girls and their coaches, they enjoyed it, for mostly none of them had ever flown before or saw all these sites.

They and all the other teams stayed at the nearby college dorms.