Sports

New Jersey leaning on history of resiliency after first LLWS loss

The Elmora Little League has faced this challenge before, so why not again?

The team from Elizabeth, N.J., reached the Little World Series by working its way through the losers’ bracket of the Mid-Atlantic regional, winning five games in six days.

They will need to do something similar if the club is to win the U.S. championship after losing to Central East Maui, 6-0, in the completion of a suspended game on Monday in Williamsport, Pa. Elmora will need to win three games in three days to reach Saturday’s U.S. championship game.

“It’s kind of like we’re battle-tested, we’ve been scarred,” Elmora manager Jairo Labrador said in a phone interview of the benefits gained by how his team won its regional. “We know that we’ve done it before, so the boys are confident, the coaches are confident.”

The loss pushes Elmora into the losers’ bracket, starting with an elimination game against Barrington, R.I., on Tuesday (7:30 p.m., ESPN). Rhode Island has been accused of sign-stealing during the New England regional. Labrador said he doesn’t believe that to be true after interacting with the Rhode Island coaches in recent weeks, and expects a “fair” game.

“They’re solid coaches who care about the kids,” Labrador said. “I don’t really buy into that stuff too much. … They’re good guys. I’m gonna go off of the reputation of me knowing them and talking to them.”

Monday’s game restarted with Maui ahead 6-0 and a runner on first with one out in New Jersey’s top half of the fifth inning. Elmora stranded two runners in the fifth and went quietly in the sixth to end the game.

“[Maui] played a better game than us, yesterday slash today,” Labrador said. “We didn’t have a day and we usually don’t have back-to-back days like that.”

Labrador believes this team’s pitching is deep enough and set up for it to still be able to make a run. The only top arm not available for Tuesday’s game is Yadi Mateo, who is lined up to pitch if Elmora advances.

“We have [Sal] Garcia available, we have [J.R.] Rosado available, we have [Jayden] Capindica available, we have [Derek] Escobar available and every single one of those kids pitched a gem in regionals and got us here.”