SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Jake Orlando hit two home runs and Blake Toler’s solo shot in the first inning set the tone for the mini-mashers from Pearland, Texas, in a 10-8 victory Friday over Plymouth, Minn., to get the Little League World Series off to a homer-happy start.
Orlando, 13, finished 4-for-4 with five RBIs. He was cool and collected afterward, speaking as if he were a seasoned major- league veteran.
“I would be super-excited to just come up here and watch games, but to play them is 1,000 times better,” said Orlando, as his proud father and Texas manager, Mike Orlando, looked on.
Three hitters after Toler’s first-inning homer, Orlando hit a towering fly that easily cleared the hedges beyond the 225-foot wall to give Texas a 3-0 lead. It tacked on five more runs in the second.
Starter Mason Van Noort was in control on the mound with five strikeouts over 2 1/3 no-hit innings but was lifted in the third to limit his pitch count.
Minnesota broke through against wild Texas relief pitching. Five relievers combined for eight walks and three hits for eight runs, and Minnesota’s Colin Quinn hit a grand slam with two out in the sixth to get his team within 10-8 before Pryce Beshoory got a strikeout to end the game.
“It was a lot of fun. It’s like driving a Corvette on an icy parking lot, right,” skipper Orlando said rhetorically.
Connecticut 3, Washington 1.
Jack Quinn’s tiebreaking two-run double in the fifth inning proved decisive for Fairfield, Conn., against Auburn, Wash.
Nate Klein scored Connecticut’s first run in the bottom off the second of the opener before making a nice catch to his left at third base on a line drive to save a possible extra-base hit. Klein finished 2-for-3.
The 12-year-old Klein was so giddy after the second inning that he danced atop third base as he waited for the next inning.
“I wasn’t really paying a lot of attention, but all of sudden there was a line drive coming at me,” he said. “I just stuck my glove out.”
Nick Nardone went 5 2/3 innings for the win, striking out 10 without a walk.
The game also had the first manager’s replay challenge, a new wrinkle for this year’s tournament. Washington skipper Kai Nahaku lost the challenge after disputing an out call at home that would have given his team the lead.
Puerto Rico 11, Germany 0.
Manati, Puerto Rico, hit five homers and two pitchers held Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, to one hit.
Puerto Rico leadoff hitter Yomar Valentin had two homers, and his cousin Victor Valentin, Bryan Figueroa and Joshuan Sandoval also went deep in a game that ended in the fourth inning because of Little League’s 10-run rule.
Yomar’s father is former major-leaguer Jose Valentin, who was in the stands, as was Jose’s brother, Javier Valentin, who played with the Reds, Twins and Rays.
Japan 4, Mexico 2.
Ginga Maruoka smacked a three-run homer with two out in the sixth inning, depositing the first pitch from reliever Ricardo Puga over the wall to finally put Japan on the scoreboard after trailing 1-0 much of the game.
