Day 1: Curious Pitch Count Decisions Rule The Day

A long first day of games is in the books. After a three-and-a-half hour drive to Williamsport, and nine hours of games, I'm exhausted. I'm not nearly as tired as the Little League World Series managers will be after trying to work out their pitching staffs. With a double elimination tournament confined to just a few days, its not something many managers will be used to.

In Game 1, Mexico put itself on the map with a 3-0 victory over Chinese Taipei. Mexico's starting pitcher, Jorge Jacobo, dominated the Taiwanese hitters by striking out 12 batters in a two-hit shutout. The big question mark for Mexico is that Jacobo is now spent for 4 days. In a tournament built like this one, burning a pitcher for four days can be dicey. On the other hand, Asia-Pacific was incredibly inept in the field. With six errors on the day (5 officially, I gave them 6), it might've been the worst defensive performance in Chinese Taipei LL history. The even more remarkable thing is that during warmups, they looked like the greatest.

Sticking with that same pool, Japan mercy-ruled Aruba 12-1 in typical Japanese fashion. Taking advantage of an error here and there, a bunt here and there, and then boom, a blast. Proving that they're always one of the headiest teams in the LLWS, the Japanese manager pulled his starter at 50 pitches. He's eligible to start against Mexico in the winner's bracket final of that pool. I understand that a blowout victory makes it easier to pull your starter, but still, what is Mexico going to do until Tuesday? Maybe they have a couple more aces up their sleeve. As for Aruba, their big ace pitched well and could do damage in this tournament, except...  Aruba burned him in a blowout loss. Aruba is probably going to be two-and-out now.

On the United States side, Montana took advantage of its first World Series appearance with a 6-4 victory over South Dakota. Cole MacKenzie had the big hit of the day for Northwest with a 2-out 2-run double in the 5-run fourth inning. Montana flashed some serious leather in the victory. South Dakota came into the series with a reputation for hitting, and they currently lead the homerun board with three. Unfortunately, walks hurt the boys from the Mount Rushmore-area.

The first night game of the 65th Little League World Series was a marquee matchup between Louisiana and Georgia. Neither league is a stranger to the LLWS, and it showed with a well-played game. Georgia was touted as a team with a dominant ace and not a whole lot of hitting. So far, that held true. Louisiana's Ethan Hines quieted the Georgia bats until the sixth inning before Hayden Erbe picked up the save by getting out of a bases loaded no-out jam. The biggest question mark of the night though was Georgia's star pitcher, Jake Fromm's absence from the mound. Jacob Giles pitched very well and is definitely a top of the line number two pitcher, but Fromm's 77-MPH fastball could've been used tonight for Georgia.

Day 1's Team Rankings

1. Mexico

2. Japan

3. Louisiana

4. Georgia

5. Chinese Taipei

6. Montana

7. Aruba

8. South Dakota