After all of the excitement of reaching the Little League World Series, after all of the love he and his teammates received — even from major leaguers — and after two victories had moved his team into the U.S. final four, J.R. Rosado settled into the batter’s box Wednesday in Williamsport, Pa.
A series of bad breaks had put the Elmora Youth Little League team into a four-run deficit against Eastbank Little League of River Ridge, La., in an elimination game, but Sal Garcia had reached base with two outs in the top of the sixth of the six-inning game to bring Rosado to bat. After walking to the plate with the knowledge that this could be it for him and his Elizabeth, N.J., team, Rosado wasn’t going to settle for going quietly.
He laced a triple to right, driving in Garcia. Yadi Mateo followed by muscling a ball to right field that was ruled just foul. Mateo then rocketed a liner to short to end the 4-1 loss. Elmora left the tournament with more than just some memories, some tweets and some games on ESPN.
“I was so glad that happened,” Elmora manager Jairo Labrador said of his team’s late flurry. “It shows the character of our team and that we fight till the last out. It was one of my favorite moments, maybe more so than the wins. They just didn’t want to stop.”
On a different day, Elmora could have been looking at one more victory standing between them and Saturday’s US championship game.
In the bottom of the first with two outs, Elmora had Eastbank’s Ryan Darrah in a rundown between home and third. But Darrah and third baseman Derek Escobar collided slightly, interference was called, and Darrah was allowed to score.
In the bottom of the third, there was more of the bizarre. Eastbank’s leadoff hitter, Reece Roussel, initially was called out on a grounder to short before a video challenge showed he just beat Garcia’s throw. The next batter, Marshall Louque, grounded into what appeared to be a double play before a video challenge showed he beat the throw to first.
Conner Perrot was then hit by a pitch, Louque and Perrot’s special runner, Alton Shorts, moved up a base on a passed ball before a strikeout, and an error on Derek DeLatte’s tricky hop to second allowed Loque to score and put runners at the corners. Those runners both scored when an Elmora pickoff attempt at third was high and bounced into left field.
The damage: two total hits by Eastbank in the first and third innings, but four runs, all with two outs.
“I’m not a big excuse guy,” Labrador said. “Things happen for a reason. Louisiana played a great baseball game. Do I wish for more of a turnaround from [Tuesday] night’s [victory]? Of course I do. I think we might have had a different game concentration-wise.
“But that team capitalized, and good teams do.”
Both starting pitchers did their parts. Rosado went all five innings, allowing just three hits and no earned runs with seven strikeouts. His Eastbank counterpart, Egan Prather, struck out 10 over 5 ¹/₃ innings before giving way to William Andrade.
Andrade and Eastbank quickly saw that Elmora was not going to settle.
“We finish as a top-four team in the country, and people are talking about Elizabeth, New Jersey, and our kids and families, and to me, that’s the biggest part,” Labrador said.