Little League World Series Regionals 2017: New Jersey, Nebraska Earn Sunday Wins

With the Southeast and Southwest regions already deep into qualification, action in the remaining regions opened Sunday to determine each representative at the 2017 Little League World Series.

The road to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, is already over for Virginia, Arkansas and Mississippi, all of whom were eliminated after suffering their second defeat of the qualifying round. More teams will have joined the trio by the time Sunday draws to a close.

Below are the results from Sunday and a brief recap for each game.

Sunday Schedule

Mid-Atlantic: New Jersey (Holbrook) def. Washington, D.C. (Northwest Washington), 16-6

Midwest: Nebraska (Kearney) def. Iowa (Johnston), 3-2

Southeast: South Carolina (Greenville) def. West Virginia (Logan), 8-4

West: Hawaii (Hilo) def. Arizona (Chandler National North), 2-1

Midwest: South Dakota (Sioux Falls) def. Kansas (Cherokee Community), 9-0

New England: Maine (South Portland American) def. Vermont (Essex Junction), 9-7

Southeast: North Carolina (North State) def. Florida (West Boynton Beach), 5-0

Northwest: Washington (Walla Walla Valley) def. Wyoming (Gillette), 13-0

Great Lakes: Ohio (West Side) def. Wisconsin (Wausau National), 22-4

Mid-Atlantic: Pennsylvania (Upper Providence) def. Delaware (Milton), 4-3

Southeast: Georgia (Peachtree City National) def. South Carolina (Greenville), 14-2

Southwest: New Mexico (Eastdale) def. Colorado (Academy), 6-4

Great Lakes: Kentucky (Lexington Eastern) def. Indiana (New Albany), 1-0

New England: New Hampshire (Goffstown Junior Baseball) def. Rhode Island (Cumberland American), 13-0

Northwest: Montana (Mount Sentinel) def. Alaska (Ketchikan), 12-0

Southeast: Alabama (Ladonia Youth Sports) def. Florida (West Boynton Beach), 12-10 (seven innings)

Southwest: Texas-West (McAllister Park National) def. Oklahoma (Tulsa National), 8-3

West: Southern California (Santa Margarita National) def. Nevada (Summerlin South), 7-2

Sunday Recap

New Jersey def. Washington, D.C., 16-6

The offensive onslaught began early from New Jersey, which registered a two-run first inning and didn't look back en route to a 16-6 run-rule victory over Washington, D.C.

Despite the big run differential, New Jersey finished with just one more hit than Washington, D.C. New Jersey registered eight hits, capitalizing on four errors by the Washington, D.C. defense.

The heart of the order delivered in a big way for New Jersey. Cleanup hitter R.J. Vashey went 3-for-4 with five RBI, while J.R. Osmond, Charlie Meglio and Chris Andrews—the Nos. 5, 6 and 7 hitters—were a combined 3-for-5 with three RBI and four runs scored.

Nebraska def. Iowa, 3-2

Pitching dominated Sunday's game between Nebraska and Iowa. A bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the fourth was the difference as Nebraska walked away with a 3-2 victory.

Mengesha Hennes allowed the go-ahead run to come home, but the damage could've been much worse. After the walk, he struck out Perry Swarm and forced Reese Bober to ground into an inning-ending fielder's choice.

Bober and Luke Wegner combined to shut the Iowa offense down in the final two innings. Owen Ellsworth reached second base with two outs in the sixth inning, but Wegner induced a groundout from Rex Woodley to end the game.

The trio of Bober, Wegner and Nebraska starter Brayden Andersen registered 13 strikeouts to just three walks and allowed two hits.

South Carolina def. West Virginia, 8-4

The journey to Williamsport is over for West Virginia, which lost 8-4 to South Carolina.

West Virginia mounted a late comeback after entering the bottom of the sixth down 8-1. Konner Lowe hit a two-out, three-run home run to give his team some hope, but Garrett Williamson grounded out to end the game.

South Carolina owes a lot of the victory to starting pitcher Taylor Rabe, who went 5.2 innings. He exited after allowing the homer to Lowe, but before that, West Virginia had no answer for him. Rabe finished with nine strikeouts and two walks.

Rabe also delivered at the plate, with his two-run double sparking a five-run fifth inning for South Carolina that proved to be pivotal in the win.

Hawaii def. Arizona, 2-1

Hawaii scored twice in the final inning to notch a 2-1 win over Arizona on Sunday.

Joshua Tiedemann stymied the Hawaii lineup over the first five innings, but things quickly fell apart in the bottom of the sixth. Tiedemann exited after allowing a walk and a single to open the inning.

Gavin Noreus took the mound next for Arizona and struck out Tyler Halemanu before surrendering an RBI single to Kyson Wada. A walk to Kahiapo Silva was Noreus' last action of the game before making way for Kole Klecker.

Klecker only threw two pitches, the last of which went to the backstop and allowed Joshua Ward to score from third.

South Dakota def. Kansas, 9-0

The duo of Jack Radel and Beau Giblin blanked Kansas as South Dakota opened Little League World Series qualification with a 9-0 win.

Radel started the game and went four innings, allowed one hit and struck out five. Giblin pitched the final two innings, struck out two batters and allowed two to reach base on walks.

Kansas' lone hit came on a two-out single by Cade Burdette in the top of the fourth.

Kansas was its own worst enemy in the game. The defense committed five errors, and the trio of Burdette, Easton Renn and Cooper Hamblin on the mound combined to allow 11 walks. Only two of South Dakota's nine runs were earned.

Maine def. Vermont, 9-7

A seven-run sixth inning powered Maine to a 9-7 victory over Vermont on Sunday.

With his only hit of the game, Andrew Heffernan got the offensive outburst started with a two-run home run to make it a 5-4 game. Johnny Poole scored the tying run on a error by Vermont second baseman Tobey Appenzeller. A sacrifice fly from Ben Stanley gave Maine a 6-5 lead, and three more runs came home on back-to-back singles by Ian Wright and Carson Blake.

Kyle Lozier made things interesting in the bottom half of the sixth after singling home two runs with two outs. But Poole struck out Tanner McFaul to end the game.

North Carolina def. Florida, 5-0

North Carolina remains one of two unbeaten teams in the Southeast region after shutting out Florida, 5-0.

North Carolina jumped on its opponent early with four runs over the first two innings. Two runs came home in the first on a fielder's choice and a steal, and Cash Daniels-Moye put two more on the board in the second with a home run.

North Carolina tacked on an insurance run in the sixth with a fielder's choice.

That was more than enough given the combined efforts of Chase Anderson, Cameron Greenway, Matthew Matthijs and Carson Hardee on the mound. They struck out 11 Florida batters.

Washington def. Wyoming, 13-0

Washington brought the bats out Sunday as they needed just four innings to earn a 13-0 victory over Wyoming in their first Northwest regional game.

Caiden Thomsen, Carson Jones, Keegan Weston and Rylan Warren also threw a combined no-hitter. All but one of Wyoming's 12 outs at the plate came via strikeout as Washington's quartet of pitchers fanned 11 batters.

Andrew Coleman helped set the tone for Washington's offense. He went 3-for-4 from the leadoff spot and drove home a run on a single in the top of the second.

Ohio def. Wisconsin, 22-4

Ohio scored 13 runs in the top of the fourth to kick off the Great Lakes regional with a 22-4 win over Wisconsin.

Seventeen Ohio batters came to the plate in the inning. Four runs were already on the board before Wisconsin got an out, and the majority of Ohio's runs came with two outs. Davis Avery hit a two-run homer, Logan Bell delivered RBI single and Braedyn Moore capped off the offensive explosion with a grand slam.

Wisconsin had no answer for the top third of Ohio's lineup. Moore, Kate Polido and Blake Detherage combined to go 8-of-12 with eight RBI.

Pennsylvania def. Delaware, 4-3

Pennsylvania scored twice in the first inning and never trailed as it defeated Delaware 4-3 on Sunday.

Matt Tsiaras opened the scoring in the bottom half of the first with a two-run homer, and T.J. Cadden tacked on another run in the second with an RBI single.

Gage Swanger's RBI single in the fourth proved to be the difference in the game.

Down 4-1 in the top of the fifth, Delaware scored twice to climb to within a run. Michael McKenna, who had entered the game in the fifth, set down Delaware in order in the final inning to secure the victory.

Georgia def. South Carolina, 14-2

South Carolina staved off elimination earlier in the day but exited Little League qualification at the hands of Georgia Sunday afternoon.

The game was responsible for one of the cooler moments from Sunday's action. With the bases loaded in the top of the first, the television announcers began discussing Jayce Blalock's prodigious power. On cue, deposited the baseball deep over the left-field fence.

The Little League's official Twitter account shared a replay of the grand slam:

It was part of a five-run first inning that helped Georgia set the tone for what proved to be an easy victory.

New Mexico def. Colorado, 6-4

New Mexico scored six runs over the final two innings to earn a comeback win over Colorado.

Sam Culp held the New Mexico offense largely in check over the first five innings. New Mexico's first run came on a double play in the top of the fifth, and Jordan Baca hit a two-out RBI single to make it a 4-2 game.

Quinn Crook came on in the sixth in relief of Culp and then things began unraveling for Colorado.

Nicolas Barela doubled to lead off the inning, and Liam Boyden, who pinch ran for Barela, scored on a one-out single off the bat of Colt Mangino. With two outs, Akili Carris hit a three-run walk-off home run to center field.

Kentucky def. Indiana, 1-0

An RBI double by Brady Robeson was enough for Kentucky to pick up a 1-0 win over Indiana.

That extra-base hit was one of the few blemishes for Indiana starting pitcher Landon Tiesing, who was otherwise excellent. He went the full five innings, struck out nine, walked two and allowed six hits.

The trio of Ty Bryant, Joey Howard and Leighton Harris was simply better. Bryant did the heavy lifting, pitching the first four innings, while Howard and Harris each went an inning apiece. Together they allowed only one hit.

Grant Borden reached second with one out in the sixth, but Harris struck out the final two batters of the game to seal the victory.

New Hampshire def. Rhode Island, 13-0

New Hampshire scored 11 runs in the second inning to power a 13-0 shutout of Rhode Island on Sunday.

Rhode Island likely felt the game wasn't out of reach after allowing two runs to come home in the bottom of the first. Then, New Hampshire sent 17 hitters to the plate, 13 of which came up to bat after Rhode Island recorded two outs in the inning.

Immediately after a double play, Jack LaRose allowed three straight run-scoring singles and things snowballed from there for Rhode Island. By the time LaRose was no longer the pitcher of record, he had 10 earned runs to his name.

Aiden O'Connell and Ryan Cote were the table-setters for the New Hampshire offense. They went a combined 5-for-5, with Cote driving in five runs.

Montana def. Alaska, 12-0

Before Alaska could even get settled, it was staring at a four-run deficit. Montana poured on eight more runs in the second inning to cruise to a 12-0 win.

Montana put on a clinic in manufacturing runs, scoring 12 runs on nine hits, only two of which went for extra bases. Montana hitters also capitalized on seven walks by the quartet of Colby Hanchey, Van McGarrigan, Caleb Eisenhower and Sean Guthrie and two errors by Alaska defenders.

In addition to going 2-for-3 at the plate with three RBI, Adam Jones pitched 1.2 innings to be Montana's standout performer. He allowed one hit and struck out for after coming on in relief for Cooper Elliott, who had a solid game offensively as well, going 1-for-2 with an RBI.

Alabama def. Florida, 12-10

In a game that went to seven innings, Alabama knocked Florida out of the Southeast region with a 12-10 win.

Alabama was one out away in the bottom of the sixth from notching the victory. Then, Tristan Rucker doubled home two runs to trim Alabama's lead to a run, 9-8. Two batters later, Trent MacDougall tied the game with an RBI single.

The frustration of surrendering a three-run advantage in the final inning didn't stymie Alabama's players for long. Jaxon Yoxtheimer hit a two-run home run over the center field fence to give Alabama an 11-9 lead, and Levi Pinder walked with the bases loaded to make it a three-run game.

Ayden Gurevich answered back with an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh to give Florida a little life, but Rucker grounded out to end the game and send Florida packing.

Texas-West def. Oklahoma, 8-3

Oklahoma seized early momentum with a solo home run from Colby Morrison and RBI single from Jaxon Gregory to take a 2-0 lead in the first. Morrison then added another RBI in the second to push the score to 3-0, but Texas-West unleashed its offense with six runs in the bottom of the frame.

Two Oklahoma errors helped set up the crooked number, and Carson Winchester's grand slam broke things open. Winchester finished with a hit in all three of his plate appearances in the heart of Texas-West's lineup.

Texas-West added two more insurance runs, and the bullpen combination of Sam Armstrong, Ryne Farber and Max Williams threw 3.1 shutout innings to clinch the win.

Southern California def. Nevada, 7-2

Southern California and Nevada were locked in a pitcher's duel until the fifth inning, when Southern California exploded for six runs to secure the win.

The victors extended what was a narrow 1-0 advantage to 7-0 thanks to an RBI fielder's choice from Drew Rutter, a two-RBI single from Joey Gray, an RBI single from Danny Lawler and multiple costly errors from Nevada.

Although Nevada pushed both of its runs across in the sixth, it was not enough for a comeback.

Southern California's Bobby Gray impressed on the mound and allowed just two earned runs in 5.2 innings, notching 10 strikeouts along the way.