The rain and a six-run deficit didn’t wash away any of the Elmora Little League’s belief.
The team from Elizabeth, N.J. saw its second-round Little League World Series game suspended because of rain trailing Central East Maui, 6-0, with one out in the top of the fifth inning Sunday in Williamsport, Pa. Little League games last six innings.
When the rain came, Elmora had Sal Garcia on first and J.R. Rosado at the plate. The game will pick up at that point at 1 p.m. on Monday. Elmora manager Jairo Labrador, whose team attended the Little League Classic game Sunday night in Williamsport between the Cubs and Pirates, said he saw the MLB game as a chance to have fun and regroup.
“We still feel like we have a shot,” Labrador told The Post in a phone interview. “This is Little League. Things happen in Little League. Six runs is not that large of a number.”
It was an uncharacteristic performance at times for the Jersey club, which fell behind right away. Jaren Pascual hit a solo home run on a 0-2 pitch from Rosado with two outs in the bottom of the first. Maui scored again in the second thanks to two Elmora throwing errors. The second allowed two runs to come home and increase Maui’s lead to 3-0.
“We didn’t make some plays defensively that we usually do,” Labrador said.
Elmora’s best threat to score off Maui starter Logan Kuloloia came in the third when Garcia was hit by a pitch and Yadi Mateo singled to put runners on first and second with two outs. But Kuloloia got Jayden Capindica to fly out deep to right to end the inning. Maui scored its final three runs on a bases-loaded double by Nicholas Nashiwa to make it 6-0 in the bottom of the inning. It was the type of big hit Elmora lacked.
“Our team hit the ball, the second, third and fourth inning,” said Labrador, whose club had four hits to Maui’s five. “They played some good defense. We hit the ball directly at people, hard sometimes, too.”
His team still has five outs to play to try to change all of that Monday. If it can’t rally, Elmora will play Barrington, Rhode Island in an elimination game Tuesday at 3 p.m. A win would pit them against the Virginia’s Loudoun South at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
The rain gave Elmora a second chance and Labrador said his players were still smiling and upbeat while getting ready to watch the Cubs and Pirates.
“We’ve definitely put up runs in innings and had big innings before,” Labrador said. “So we are looking forward to having some quality at-bats [Monday]. Even if we don’t pull it out, we want to gain some momentum going into the next day.”