Little League World Series scores and bracket: Texas, Illinois advance

The Little League World Series continued its elimination phase Monday in Williamsport. Five games took place in a full day of baseball action that saw Texas and Illinois move on in the American side of the bracket and Mexico and Venezuela advancing with wins.

Here is a look back at the day’s five games:

In Monday’s only consolation game, South Dakota took on the Europe-Africa region’s tournament representative in the Czech Republic. After dropping its first two games of the tournament, South Dakota left Williamsport with a 5-3 win thanks to a three-run rally in the bottom of the fifth. Matthew Hegre led the way, going 2-for-2 with a double and two RBI at the plate and also coming on in relief to earn the win. South Dakota trailed 3-2 in the fifth, but scored three runs to take the lead.

Hegre struck out four of the five batters he faced in relief and struck out the side in the top of the sixth to clinch South Dakota’s win.

In the day’s first elimination game, Mexico fell two runs behind Australia early, but scored six runs in the final three innings to advance with a 6-2 win. The big blow proved to be Erick Vela’s three-run home run in the fourth inning, which gave Mexico a 4-2 lead and sparked a four-run rally. Mexico would score another run in the fourth and add its sixth run in the fifth inning on a solo blast by Ruy Martinez, who went 3-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored Monday.

Starter Aldair Tellez starred for Mexico on the mound, pitching 5⅔ innings and striking out 12 Australian batters and walking none, while allowing just a single earned run.

Texas’ offense got hot against Washington on Monday, with the Southwest region’s representative scoring early and often in an 11-4 win. Eight Texas hits, including a three-run home run by Layne Roblyer to make the score 4-0 in the third, were enough to keep Texas alive in Williamsport. Washington nearly came back from a five-run deficit and ended up cutting the lead to 6-4 in the fifth inning, but Texas put the game away with five runs in the top of the sixth.

Landon Donley and Brandon Sliwinski pitched three innings each for Texas, combining to strike out nine Washington batters and walk just one.

The day’s final international game didn’t feature nearly as much offense, with Venezuela prevailing, 2-1, over Puerto Rico. Venezuela got on the board in the top of the first inning on a solo home run by Julio Rejon. After Puerto Rico tied the game in the bottom of the first by scoring on a passed ball, Venezuela again took the lead in the second. Pinch runner Greybell Salom scored from third after a throwing error from catcher Alvin Martinez.

Venezuela shut out Puerto Rico from there. Ronny Medina pitched five innings, giving up just two hits and the run, while striking out nine. Diomel Bracho came on to close out the win in the sixth inning.

Monday’s final game proved to be a riveting, back-and-forth contest, which saw Illinois advance past Rhode Island, 8-7. After Illinois scored a run in the top of the first and Rhode Island answered back with two of its own, Illinois rallied with four more runs in the top of the second. Cameron Bufford tied the score at 2-2 with an RBI single before Trey Hondras plated three with a three-run homer. After Illinois scored another run in the third, Rhode Island battled back with a five-run rally in the bottom half. Addison Kopack and Tyler Provost each added RBI singles, and Trey Thibeault hit a two-run blast to give Rhode Island a 7-6 lead.

Illinois held the New England champions scoreless from there, though, and got the game’s winning runs on back-to-back RBI singles in the fifth inning. Joshua Houston, who had three hits on the day, knocked in the go-ahead run.