Little League World Series 2013 Scores: Day 8 Results, Analysis and Recap

The first half of Thursday's action in the 2013 Little League World Series is in the books.

Mexico and Panama met on Day 8 to see who would play Japan in the international half of the bracket. Both teams were playing for their LLWS lives, having lost earlier in the series.

Panama have had a little help in getting this far. After finding a teddy bear before a game, the team adopted it as one of their own and christened it "Nene." Panama came into Thursday's game unbeaten while "Nene" was in the dugout, according to The Baltimore Sun's Eduardo A. Encina.

Inclement weather ended up getting in the way, causing the first rain delay of the LLWS.

Mexico vs. Panama didn't resume until 8:10 p.m. ET.

Later in the evening, Sammamish, Wash., and Westport, Conn., were supposed to play for the chance to meet Chula Vista, Calif., in the American championship. Mother Nature prevented that from happening with a 95-minute rain delay.

Ben Brigandi of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette reported that game will be moved to Friday at 3 p.m. ET.

Although fans were only treated to one-half of Thursday's double bill, the players made sure it was a thrilling encounter.

Day 8 Results

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	F	H	E
Mexico	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	4	7	1
Panama	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	6	2

Panama and Mexico had themselves quite a pitching duel.

In the first inning, it was as if both teams agreed to get into the most precarious positions possible and just see who could do the better job of getting out of the jam.

In the top of the first inning, Daniel Fernandez walked the bases loaded for Mexico. It's never a good sign when a coach is making a mound visit that early in the game. However, Fernandez seemed to settle down after the talk with his coach.

He struck out Ramon Mendoza and got Axcel Mandujano to line into an inning-ending double play. It was a major disaster averted for Panama.

Brigandi thought Mexico were just a little too antsy when the bases were loaded.

In the bottom of the first inning, Mexico found the shoe on the other foot. Panama had runners on the corner with just one out. Brandon Meza wasn't able to completely avoid any damage, as Jordan Agrazal hit a sacrifice fly that scored Jean Mar Sanchez. Juan Crisp did get thrown out at first after getting caught too far off the bag, thus ending the threat.

Still, a 1-0 lead was better than nothing.

That would be the last of the action for a while as both pitchers made sure to bring their best stuff to this elimination game.

After pitching so well for so long, it only took one mistake from Fernandez in the top of the fifth to erase everything he had done. He left a pitch hanging in the zone, which Brandon Montes took for a ride, tying the game at 1-1 with a solo homer.

That was the final batter for Fernandez, who pitched 4.1 innings, gave up just one run on three hits and struck out six.

Mexico got their second run of the game when Alexander Artalejo drove in Saul Favela on an RBI single.

Panama then tied it at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth after another sacrifice fly from Agrazal scored a run.

Both teams went scoreless in the sixth inning, leading to some bonus baseball.

Jorge Romero wasted little time, hitting a two-run homer in the top of the seventh inning to put Mexico up, 4-2.

Panama made it interesting in the bottom of the seventh by getting runners on second and third with two outs but couldn't move them over any more.

As a result of the win, Mexico move on to play Japan on Saturday. Meanwhile, Panama have been eliminated from the Little League World Series.