By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
South Williamsport, PA – No-hitters rarely happen at the Little League level. Grant Holman’s name will go down in history, as the pitcher, who threw the latest no-hitter at the Little League World Series.
And it was 20 years since the last no-hitter by a California pitcher at the Series since Sean Burroughs, who would later play in the Major Leagues.
The 6-foot, 4 inches tall pitcher led his Eastlake Little League, which is representing the West team, to a 3-0 win over the Gross Pointe Woods-Shores Little League, which is representing the Great Lakes Region. This was the sixth game of the 2013 Little League World Series on Friday afternoon.
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In 2007, Little League went to an 85 pitch limit for pitchers, before they would have to be replaced. Yet, Holman had no problem getting the first no-hitter since the rule was enacted.
It is also the first no-hitter in extra innings since the 1979 Little League World Series. In that game, it featured the Chinese Taipei team and California.
Holman outdueled Chad Lorkowski, who is 6-foot, 3 inches tall. He would strike out 13 batters and walked only one batter, as he saw 21 Great Lakes batters.
“That kid [Holman] throws hard,” said Great Lakes manager Tom Mazzola. “He’s 6-foot-4, he has a nice curveball and he hits his spots. We haven’t quite faced a pitcher like that, but the same goes for our big fella. Chad for his size and weight is remarkable.”
Lorkowski only lasted six innings. He didn’t disappoint either, as he struck out 12 batters and walked two batters, as he saw 18 West batters.
“He throws the ball pretty hard and on top of that he kept changing arm slots and on top of that he had good off-speed pitches,” said Holman. “He was really tough.”
The only thing that Lorkowski beat Holman on this day was the strike percentage. He had a 74.4% strike percentage, while Holman had a 69.8%.
“He [Lorkowski] was going out there. He was dealing,” said Chula Vista coach Rick Tibbett. “And we knew they had to bring someone else in and we knew we were going to hit him.”
Antonio Moceri would have to follow Lorkowski’s efforts. And that’s when the West team began to make their move to take the lead.
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After six scoreless innings on both sides, the West team would finally get on the board at the top of the 7th inning. Giancarlo Cortez and Rennard Williams would have back-to-back singles to start the 7th before Patrick Archer gave the West team a 2-0 lead with a two-run RBI single to center field.
Micah Pietila-Wiggs would follow Archer with an RBI single of his own to make it 3-0, as he knocked in Kevin Bateman II.
The Great Lakes would not score in the bottom of the 7th inning.
Now, the West team will face Mid-Atlantic on Sunday at 5 pm on ESPN. Great Lakes plays tonight against the Midwest at 8 pm on ESPN.
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