Little League Softball World Series Opening Day Recap
The opening games of the Little League Softball World Series took place on Sunday and saw the Southeast, North Carolina, Canada, and Mid-Atlantic regions all pull away with wins, starting the bracket 1-0.
Game 1: Southeast Region (9); Northwest Region (2)
In the first game of the World Series, the Southeast Region (Lake Mary LL, FL) defeated the Northwest Region (Mill Creek LL, WA) 9-2. The Southeast region team was led by long ball hitter Addison Bono, who hit a home run in the first inning, driving in three runs. She struck again in the second inning with a double that scored another three runs for her squad.
In the circle, the Southeast was led by Sam Bradley and Cayden Hugh, who combined for all seven innings, giving up three hits, 2 runs (both earned), five walks, and seven strikeouts.
Game 2: North Carolina Region (4); Latin America Region (3)
In the second game of the day, the North Carolina Region (Pitt County LL) team bested the Latin American Region (São Paulo, Brazil) team 4-3, thanks to the timely batting of Gemma Braxton, who drove in the winning run late in the fifth inning.
North Carolina only needed two hits to secure the win, the key hit from Braxton and the single from Isabella Ford to start the fifth inning. Their ace on the rubber, Makayla Montgomery, threw all six innings for the squad and allowed eight hits, three runs (all earned), one walk, and five strikeouts.
Latin America put up more offensive numbers with eight hits in the game, but two unearned runs were costly down the stretch.
Game 3: Canada Region (5); Europe-Africa Region (4)
In the most exciting game of day one of the tournament, Canada (On Field LL, Quebec) won on a 5-4 walk-off over Europe-Africa (Prague LL) as Estelle Dionne singled in the bottom of the seventh to score the winning run.
Dionne was joined by Adèle Dostaler as the key presence at the plate for Canada; both hitters went 2-for-3 on the day. Team Canada tallied eight hits and three RBIs in the win, while Europe-Africa had six hits and 1 RBI.
Arielle Prescott and Dionne combined for the win and mowed down 11 of Europe-Africa's batters.
Game 4: Mid-Atlantic Region (2); New England Region (1)
In the final game of the day, a pitchers' duel ensued between Mid-Atlantic's (West Suburban LL, PA) Reagan Bills and New England's (Guilford LL, CT) Maeve Eagleson, with Bills coming out on top with the 2-1 victory.
Both pitchers kept the contest tight as Bills threw a one-hitter that resulted in one run (unearned) but totaled 15 strikeouts in the contest. Eagleson threw the entire game for her New England squad and conceded two hits, two runs (both unearned), three walks, and six strikeouts.
It would be the late heroics of Leilah Schilling-Monsour who singled in the sixth inning when the game was tied that gave Mid-Atlantic the go ahead run and win on the day.
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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