Russell Hedges
rhedges@bossierpress.com
The Bossier Nationals won two of three games in pool play in the Little League Southwestern Regional in Waco, Texas, over the weekend.
The Nationals have a good chance of advancing to Tuesday’s semifinals, which will be shown on ESPN2. But they won’t know their fate until after today’s Texas East-Texas West game.
Bossier finished 2-1 in four-team Pool A. The Nationals defeated Texas East (Pearland) 5-0 Friday and Mississippi (Ocean Springs) 21-0 Sunday. They lost to Texas West (Corpus Christi) 11-4 Saturday.
The top two teams in Pools A and B advance to the semifinals.
Texas West (2-0) is the lone undefeated team in Pool A. If Texas West defeats Texas East (1-1), Bossier advances as the second-place team in the pool.
If Texas East wins, there will be a three-way tie for first. The first tie-breaker is the runs-allowed ratio. That is the total number of runs given up in all pool play games played by a team, divided by the number of half-innings played on defense in pool play.
The team with the lowest run-allowed ratio advances. The winner of the head-to-head matchup between the remaining two teams would be the second-place team.
Regardless of how things turn out, Bossier has represented Louisiana well.
Amani Larry, Eric Brown and Bryson Connell combined on a four-hitter in the victory over Texas East.
Larry went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs. Derious Bradford went 2-for-3 with a double.
Brown and Dustin Barron each had a single and an RBI. Hayden Gatti and Daniel Halbert had singles.
Bossier hung with Texas West through the first four innings Saturday and trailed just 2-0. But Texas West blew the game open with six runs in the fifth.
Brown had a three-run homer for Bossier in the fifth, and Larry had a solo shot in the sixth.
Hayden Travinski had a double. JT Brice and Barron had singles.
Dalton Burrell, Connell and Brown combined on a four-inning one-hitter against Mississippi.
Brown went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs. Bradford and Larry also homered.
Burrell went 2-for-4, including a double. Gatti, Halbert and Connell also had doubles. Travinski, Gatti and Brice had singles.
