Kentucky wins Little League World Series

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Posted 9:29PM on Sunday, August 25, 2002

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA - Aaron Alvey homered and set three pitching records as Louisville, Ky., beat Sendai, Japan, 1-0 Sunday night to win the Little League World Series. With one out in the top of the first, Alvey sent the first pitch he saw 250 feet - the outfield wall is 205 - to center field to put Louisville up 1-0. He then struck out 11 batters on his way to setting World Series records for strikeouts (44), consecutive no-hit innings (13) and scoreless innings (21). Louisville is the first U.S. team to win the title since Tom's River, N.J., beat Kashima, Japan, 12-9 in 1998. Alvey walked Yoosuke Katoh with two out in the sixth inning, putting Tatsuhiko Numakura - who had three home runs in the series - at the plate. But Numakura's line drive was caught by first baseman Casey Jordan to end the game. When Jordan caught the ball, Alvey blew out a huge sigh of relief. Alvey struck out Yoshinori Satoh in the second to break the 31-year-old record for strikeouts. Mu-Hsu Chin of Tainan City, Taiwan, struck out 36 in two games in 1971, including 22 in nine innings in Tainan City's 12-3 championship victory over Gary, Ind. Alvey also set a record with 13 consecutive no-hit innings - one against Aptos, Calif., one against Clemmons, N.C., nine against Fort Worth, Texas, and the first two against Japan. The previous record was 12, set in 1993 by Sean Burroughs for champion Long Beach, Calif. On Wednesday night, Alvey threw a no-hitter through nine innings in Louisville's 2-1, 11-inning victory over Fort Worth in the U.S. semifinals. Although Little League rules required that Alvey be replaced in the 10th inning, his performance was recorded as a no-hitter, the longest no-hitter in Little League history. Before Yuuki Chiba's line drive to center field to lead off the third, the last hit Alvey allowed was Andrew Biancardi's infield single leading off the sixth inning for Aptos in Louisville's Aug. 17 series opener. The last run Alvey allowed scored on Biancardi's RBI double in the first. Burroughs had shared that record with Art Deras, who pitched for Hamtramck, Mich., in 1959. Chiba finished with two of Japan's three hits, and Katoh had 10 strikeouts. In the third-place game, Willemstad, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles beat Worcester, Mass., 9-1. It was the second consecutive year Curacao played in the consolation game. Last year, Curacao lost 9-1 to the Bronx, but later was awarded third place when the New York City team forfeited because pitcher Danny Almonte was too old to play. Hairo Polonius hit a two-run double, and Dennis Neuman struck out nine for Curacao.