SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — The boys from Billings have the perfect excuse to miss the start of school Wednesday back home in Montana - they keep winning at the Little League World Series.
Patrick Zimmer tossed five shutout innings and Ben Askelson hit a two-out, two-run single in a 3-1 win over Lafayette, La., on Sunday that kept the Northwest region champs undefeated in South Williamsport.
It’s not a bad start for the first team from Montana to qualify for youth baseball’s biggest tournament, even though the players didn’t think they would get here.
“We were just kind of hoping to make it” to the regional tournament, said Ian Leatherberry, 12, who added a run in the sixth with a two-out double. “That was our ultimate goal, and then we got even farther.”
School begins this week, and if everything breaks right, they might miss even more classes if they advance to the championship game Aug. 28.
Are the players disappointed they won’t be in school? Zimmer, Askelson, Leatherberry and closer Sean Jones immediately responded in unison with an emphatic “No!”
In the other early game Sunday, Yonny Hernandez hit two homers and three pitchers combined for a shutout to help Maracay, Venezuela, stay unbeaten with an 8-0 win over Langley, British Columbia.
Sunday’s late games featured Japan against Mexico and Huntington Beach, Calif., taking on LaGrange, Ky., in the U.S. bracket. The winner of that contest will play Montana on Wednesday.
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