SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — The boys from Billings have the perfect excuse to miss the start of school Wednesday back home in Montana — they keep winning at the Little League World Series.
Patrick Zimmer tossed five shutout innings and Ben Askelson hit a two-out, two-run single in a 3-1 win over Lafayette, La., on Sunday that kept the Northwest region champs undefeated in South Williamsport.
It’s not a bad start for the first team from Montana to ever qualify for youth baseball’s biggest tournament, even though the players didn’t think they would get here.
“We were just kind of hoping to make it,” said Ian Leatherberry, 12, who added an insurance run in the sixth with a two-out, RBI double. “That was our ultimate goal, and then we got even anybody.”
Zimmer struck out four before Jones came on to pitch the sixth and immediately got into trouble.
Louisiana’s Nick Fruge reached on a three-base error, then scored on a wild pitch. Later Cain Castille, who finished 3 for 3, doubled with two outs to put the tying run at the plate, but Jones got a fielder’s choice to end the game.
“We hit the ball, not as well as we wanted us to, but we hit at people, too,” Louisiana manager Leland Padgett said. “That’s baseball, there’s nothing you can do about