West, Canada pitchers prove dominant Southwood hurls two-hitter

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BANGOR – Mike Southwood took a no-hitter into the final inning of Monday’s matchup between the Centennial Little League of Calgary, Alberta, and Central Chesterfield, Va., at the Senior League Baseball World Series.

After the second of the game’s two lightning delays halted the contest for 17 minutes with one out in the seventh, the Canadian right-hander settled for a two-hit shutout and a 3-0 victory over the U.S. South champion.

“I was real nervous during the delay, I’ll put it that way,” said Southwood, who struck out eight and walked three. “But I think it’s more important that we pulled out the win.”

The outcome leaves both teams with 1-1 records in the tournament, and marked the second Pool A game of the day in which pitching was dominant.

Earlier, U.S. West representative Hilo, Hawaii, defeated the Khorvino Little League from Moscow, Russia, 5-0 as four pitchers combined to no-hit the European champions.

Southwood threw just 99 pitches in his complete-game effort. He pitched to just three batters in each of the first five innings, aided by a pair of double plays he started on comebackers to the mound.

Central Chesterfield’s only threat came after the seventh-inning delay, when Matt Brown broke up the no-hitter with a solid single to center and Will Childs singled to left.

Southwood regrouped quickly, striking out Lance Firebaugh to end the game.

“You can’t take anything away from their pitcher,” said Central Chesterfield manager Jeff Byrd, whose team had pounded out 15 hits Sunday in an 8-2 win over Hilo. “He kept us off-balance all night. He had a good fastball, a good curve, and changed speeds well.

“He made even some of our better hitters look average.”

Canada’s Chris Capot had the only extra-base hit of the game, a double off Central Chesterfield right-hander Burt Burgwyn that scored Scott Price in the first inning. Matt Adamson singled home Jeff Matsumiya in the third. The game’s final run came in the fifth as Dave Grose hit a two-out single to drive home Sean Verrier.

“This is a big win for us,” said Canada manager Gary Southwood, Mike’s father. “It’s not every day that Canada beats the U.S. South.”

In Monday’s opener, Hilo (1-1) scored three unearned runs in the top of the first inning to take control, and the pitching staff shut down the Moscow bats.

“Today was a difficult day,” said Moscow manager Mikail Kornev, whose team is 0-1 in the tournament. “Because we have eight hours difference in time between here and home and it was the third or fourth day of dealing with it, I knew today we wouldn’t hit because of it, and I was right.”

Matt Haasenritter, Sheldon Otsuka, Jesse Yamashita and Ryan Pagan each saw pitching duty for the Hawaiians, combining to strike out six batters and walk seven without allowing a hit.

“The plan was for Matt to go as far as he could,” said Hilo manager Hale Decker. “But when he first came out his arm seemed really tired, he didn’t have the pop he had before. So I figured once we got the lead that we could work everybody else in so they could get a feel for the mound for when we need them later.”

Otsuka earned the win, working four innings after relieving Haasenritter in the bottom of the second.

“I’m usually a middle-relief pitcher, so this wasn’t different for me,” he said.

Haasenritter led Hilo’s nine-hit attack with a double, two singles and an RBI. Derrick Iida added two singles and Owen Otsuka had two RBIs for the Hawaiians.

Two Moscow errors and RBI singles by Haasenritter, Kulea Bondallian and Iida staked Hilo to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first against Moscow starter Nikita Paimoukhin.

Hilo added another run in the second as Dane Inouye was hit by a pitch, stole second, reached third on a balk and scored on Owen Otsuka’s single to center.

Paimoukhin then settled down, holding Hilo scoreless over the next three innings before giving way to relievers Alexandre Kojevnikov and Ivan Kornev, who each worked an inning.

Hilo scored its final run in the sixth. Kyle Correia drew a leadoff walk and reached third on an Inouye sacrifice bunt and a stolen base before scoring on Owen Otsuka’s groundout.

U.S. WEST 5, EUROPE 0

(Monday Morning)

Hilo, Hawaii (1-1) Moscow, Russia (0-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Inouye, ss-3b 2 2 1 0 Poliakov, ss 2 0

O.Otsuka, c-ss 3 0 1 2 Kondrashov, cf 1 0

Haasenritter, p-rf 4 1 3 1 Kornev, 3b-p 3 0

Ioane, cf 4 0 0 0 Chtcherbakov, 1b 3 0

Bondallian, 1b 4 1 1 1 Kapoustkin, 2b 1 0

Iida, rf-lf 3 0 2 1 Ivankov, 2b 1 0 0

Pagan, p 1 0 0 0 Grachev, lf 1 0 0

Yamashita, lf-p 0 0 0 0 Kojevnikov, rf-p 0

S.Otsuka, p 2 0 1 0 a-Ponomarev 1 0 0

Kaeo, 2b 0 0 0 0 Paimoukhin, p-rf 2 0

Correia, 2b 2 1 0 0 Vorotilin, c 1 0 0

Spencer, 3b 1 0 0 0 b-Belyev 2 0 0

Yada, c 2 0 0 0

Totals 28 5 9 5 Totals 19 0 0 0

a-walked for Kojevnikov in 5th; b-struck out for Vorotilin in 5th and 7th

Hilo, Hawaii 310 001 0 ? 5

Moscow, Russia 000 000 0 ? 0

E?O. Otsuka; Kornev, Kojevikov; LOB?Hilo 7, Moscow 6; 2B?Haasenritter; DP?Correia-O.Otsuka-Bondallian; S?Inouye, O. Otsuka; Paimoukhin; SB?Inouye 2, Pagan, Bondallian, Iida, Correia

Hilo, Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO

Haasenritter 1 0 0 0 1 1

S. Otsuka (W, 1-0) 4 0 0 0 4 4

Yamashita 1 0 0 0 2 0

Pagan 1 0 0 0 0 1

Moscow, Russia IP H R ER BB SO

Paimoukhin (L, 0-1) 5 8 4 1 0 1

Kojevnikov 1 0 1 0 1 0

Kornev 1 1 0 0 0 0

HBP?Yamashita by Paimoukhin; WP?Paimoukhin; BK? Paimoukhin; T?1:55; ATT?100 (est.)

CANADA 3, U.S. SOUTH 0

(Monday Afternoon)

Alberta (1-1) C. Chesterfield, Va. (1-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Toy, cf 3 0 1 0 Reed, ss 3 0 0

Bahry, lf 0 0 0 0 McEnhimer, rf 1 0 0

Price, ss 3 1 1 0 Ullom, rf 1 0 0

Copot, c 4 0 1 1 Childress, lf 3 0 0

Verrier, 1b 3 1 1 0 Brown, 1b 3 0 0

Southwood, p 3 0 1 0 Chids, c 3 0 0

Sehlstrom, 3b 3 0 0 0 L.Firebaugh, cf 3 0

Matsumiya, 2b 3 1 2 0 T.Firebaugh, 3b 1 0

a-Flynn 1 0 0 0 Byrd, 3b 1 0 0

O’Brien, rf 1 0 0 0 Richardson, 2b 0 0 0

Grose, rf 1 0 1 1 Marshall, 2b 0 0 0

Stevenson, lf 1 0 0 0 Burgwyn, p 2 0

Adamson, cf-lf 2 0 1 1

Totals 28 3 9 3 Totals 21 0 2 0

a-struck out for Matsumiya in 5th

Alberta, Canada 100 110 0 ? 3

Central Chesterfield, Va. 000 000 0 ? 0

E?Grose; LOB?Alberta 10, Central Chesterfield 3; 2B?Copot; DP?Southwood-Price-Verrier, Southwood-Price-Verrier; S?Price, O’Brien; SB?Matsumiya

Alberta, Canada IP H R ER BB SO

Southwood (W, 1-0) 7 2 0 0 3 8

C. Chesterfield, Va. IP H R ER BB SO

Burgwyn (L, 0-1) 7 9 3 3 4 4

WP?Burgwyn; T?1:43; ATT?200 (est.)