Day 6: Pennsylvania Still The Darlings

Well, Pennsylvania turned an incredible heartbreaking loss on the first night of the Little League World Series into probably one of the more memorable runs in recent memory. After Tyler McCloskey's throw to first base took out perennial-power Warner Robins, Keystone finds itself just one win away from playing in the United States championship game.

The historical thing about that possibility? With the exception of the illegal Rolando Paulino team in 2001, no team from the "Mid-Atlantic" region has ever played for the US championship. The last team from a Mid-Atlantic state to do it was Toms River East American in 1999. The last team from the Eastern region to play for a US championship was Saugus American LL from Massachusetts in 2003.

There's still a winner's bracket game to be played, however. Big Sky, Montana will continue to try and shock the world by taking on Ocean View, California tonight. The loser faces Keystone and its 30,000 fans.

If Montana finds a way to beat California it will be one of the bigger upsets in a long time in the LLWS, but if they do, it will be the first time since 2006 that a team from the Northwest plays for a United States championship.

This brings me to my next point.

Modified double elimination. ESPN and Little League have been telling us the format is double elimination all week long. I, like most people, assumed that meant whoever wins the two pods must be beaten twice. Then they will play single elimination championship game for the US crown. That's how they did it last year. That's how they do it at the College World Series.

I've been all wrong. Apparently, if you come out of the loser's bracket, you only need to beat the winner's bracket team once. This is a huge disadvantage for the teams that have earned the right to be beaten twice. Little League doesn't care.

Who does this hurt the most? Mexico. California will most likely be okay. Nobody has a pitcher that can match up with the staff they have. Mexico may actually have better pitching, but you can never ever count out the Japanese. If Japan makes it back to the International Championship, there is no favorite in that game. That's wrong.

I think the worst thing about the double elimination tournament is that California is basically an afterthought. I understand that ESPN is pushing PA like crazy, but PA is playing every single night. They have to be pushed. California is just sitting around being forgotten about, especially after their second game wasn't shown on television because of tennis. Tennis? Really? That gives ESPN better ratings than the LLWS? I doubt it. 

There's only six teams left in the entire world of Little League Baseball. It's pretty amazing.