Little League Softball World Series Day Two Recap
The second day of the Little League Softball World Series was packed with action as the home team, North Carolina, moved to 2-0, along with the Mid-Atlantic Region team, the Southwest notched their first win, the Mid-Atlantic, and team Japan handed Canada their first loss.
Game 5: North Carolina (5); Central Region (3)
At this point, team North Carolina should be known as the Cardiac Kids, as they mounted their second comeback win on Monday with a 5-3 victory over the Central Region (Floyds Knobs Community Club LL).
Team North Carolina found themselves quickly down three runs off a single from Central's Grace Fiore and Scarlett Renn, and a double from Kennedy Nickels.
However, North Carolina mounted their comeback in the sixth inning, scoring all five of their runs with the biggest punch from Emily Mills, who drove in two runs. Mills went 1-for-3 on the day while teammates Avery Cash, Caroline Reynolds, and Ava Wilson went 2-for-3.
Game 6: Southwest Region (2); Southeast Region (1)
In the second game, the Southwest Region (Tulsa LL) handed the Southeast Region (Lake Mary LL) their first loss, 2-1.
In a tight game that saw the score tied until the fourth inning, a hit-by-pitch determined the game as Milana Flamminio-Littlejohn took the pitch for her team and drove in a run. Flamminio-Littlejohn went 2-for-3 in the win.
The steady pitching of Southwest Region's Harmoneigh White, who allowed only five hits, one run, one walk, and struck out five to advance to the next round.
Game 7: Mid-Atlantic Region (9); West Region (1)
In the third game of the day, Mid-Atlantic's Reagan Bills continued her dominance as she allowed just three hits and recorded 10 strikeouts. Bills has now notched 25 strikeouts in her first two games of the tournament.
For Team Mid-Atlantic, the hitting was shared as they compiled 12 hits on the day, including Bills, who doubled in the third inning and scored two runs; she finished the day a perfect 3-for-3 with two RBIs. In addition to Bills, second baseman Camila Gaunt went 2-for-3 on the day with one RBI.
Game 8: Asia-Pacific Region (Japan) 6; Canada Region (1)
To close day two, Japan secured its first win ever at the Little League Softball World Series in its 6-1 victory over Canada. This was Canada's first loss in the tournament.
The dominant performances from Hiragi Nitta and Rinka Nozaki seemed to be too much for Canada's hitters, as they only surrendered four hits, one earned run, but compiled 10 strikeouts.
Nozaki was the spark offensively as well as she went 2-for-3 on the night with a key double in the first inning that scored two runs.
Allison Smith is an expert in leadership and organizational behavior in collegiate and professional women’s sports. Smith is a professor (Georgia State University), researcher, and writer. Smith holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in Kinesiology and Sport Studies. Smith’s research centers on combatting the underrepresentation of women leaders in sport, lack of organizational structure for work life integration for sport employees, and lack of programming and oversight for preparing athletes to transition to life after sport. Since graduating with a bachelor’s in journalism in 2011, Smith has sought opportunities to write about sports as a contributing writer focused on the growth of women’s collegiate, Olympic, and professional sports in this new age and movement for multiple outlets including Athletic Director U, and now Forbes.com. As a former Division I and II pitcher and Division III pitching coach Smith will bring unique insight and expertise to Softball on SI.
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