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Rarified air
Maracaibo, Bellaire to meet in title game
Updated: Thursday November 30, 2000 10:44 AM
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Terrence McConn jumps on home plate after the first of his two home runs in the 8-0 win. AP |
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (CNN/SI) -- Ross Haggard pitched the Bellaire, Texas, team into Saturday's Little League World Series championship.
However, he won't be available to pitch the championship game. Not that Bellaire manager Terry McConn is concerned. He said he's got three other capable pitchers ready to go against Maracaibo, Venezuela, in the title game.
None of them, however, have pitched as well Haggard.
The lanky Little Leaguer capped an exceptional series performance with a 13-strikeout, four-hit outing in Bellaire's 8-0 win over Davenport, Iowa, in Thursday night's U.S. final.
Haggard finished with two shutout wins, a save, 27 strikeouts and five hits allowed in 16 2/3 innings at Williamsport. He also pitched a no-hitter a week earlier in the South Region championship game.
"I can't imagine another week (like this)," Haggard said. "To be in the World Series and to have my best pitching, that's awesome."
Asked what sparked him, he said, "I think it's because I wanted to show everyone on TV that I was good."
Now everyone knows.
The rest of his teammates are no slouches either, considering Bellaire had never before advanced past the district round.
Together, they'll take their balanced hitting attack and deep pitching staff against an upstart Maracaibo team that knocked off favored Tokyo 5-4 in the international final earlier in the day.
Whoever the opponent, it doesn't matter.
As McConn said: "It's just been a blur. I'm ready to play that World Series game on Saturday and get back home and go to work and think about some of this stuff."
Maracaibo's week has been just as exciting.
Despite sporadic offensive punch, and after barely reaching the international final on the strength of a last-inning rally to beat Toronto 5-4, Maracaibo is on a roll.
In a jubilant celebration in which Maracaibo manager Eduvino Quevedo hugged every player on the field -- including Tokyo's.
"His main goal was to win a championship," said interpreter Luis Sanchez, speaking for Quevedo. "He came here and beat a very great team, and he's very happy. He's happy with himself and happy with the team."
The two opponents took an unlikely path to the final.
Bellaire had a pool of just 42 players to draw its team from.
The Maracaibo players, meanwhile, come from a poor part of the region, and arrived in Williamsport with just one bat. Four of their players didn't have spikes when they began tournament play.
"This is a team that has a bunch of fighters," Quevedo said. "They're from a very poor neighborhood in Maracaibo and they don't give up very easily."
They showed that against a highly regarded Tokyo team that went 3-0 in the preliminary round, including a 10-0 win against Maracaibo, and outscored its opponents by a combined 28-8.
Ruben Mavarez's three-run homer keyed a four-run second inning, while Marcel Prado squelched Tokyo's offense, allowing five hits and striking out nine as Maracaibo became the first Latin American team to reach the final since Guadalupe, Mexico, won it all 1997.
Bellaire, meanwhile, had little trouble beating Davenport.
Catcher Terrence McConn led the way with two homers, including a three-run shot, and drove in four runs as Bellaire became the sixth Texas team to reach the finals, and first since Spring in
1995.
The loss ended Davenport's heady run as the Iowans not only ended a three-year Central Region losing streak, but became the first Central team to reach the final since pool play was introduced in 1992.
Davenport manager Matt Kolar called it "dynamite week."
"This has been a great time," Kolar said. "Shoot, we were playing in the final game against Bellaire, and you can't beat that."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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