BANGOR, Maine — Challenged by a barrage of speed and power throughout its Senior League World Series semifinal against Aruba on Friday, the Niles-Centerville Little League of Fremont, Calif., used a moment of sheer hustle to earn its way to its first-ever world championship game.
Casey Jennings raced from second base to third on what looked like a routine fielder’s choice play in the third inning, extending a seven-run rally that was just enough as the U.S. West champions held on for a 7-6 victory at Mansfield Stadium.
The win advances Fremont (5-0) to Saturday’s 3 p.m. SLWS final against the West University Little League of Houston, Texas, a 6-1 winner over Makati City, Philippines.
“I’m just so proud of these guys,” said Fremont manager Perry Romero. “They just keep battling.”
No one battled harder than Jennings, a catcher who turned a routine play into a game-winning uprising.
Fremont had three runs in and runners on first and second with two outs in the bottom of the third when Justin Dhanda grounded to Aruba third baseman Sicnarf Loopstok.
Loopstok could either tag out Jennings, step on third base before he got there or throw to first to end the inning.
But Jennings, who was off on the pitch, saw the chance to beat Loopstook to third to deny Aruba the force-out, and a head-first slide was just the difference.
“I’m known as the dirty guy on the team,” said Jennings. “I like to dive on every play, and it looked like an opportunity to be safe so I hustled like everyone should and luckily it worked out.”
“I thought he was going to throw to first, but I saw he was kind of lackadaisical. Then I thought he was going to tag me but I just went around him and got in there safe.”
Fremont went on to score four more runs in the inning, a rally that benefited from three Aruba errors and RBI singles by Jennings, Billy Nevin and Matt Knight.
But it was a simple hustle play that gave Fremont the extra runs it eventually needed to survive a ferocious comeback by Aruba.
“Casey was actually going on that pitch, and the third baseman made a nice play but it looked like he kind of took his time over there,” said Romero. “And when Casey’s going for a base it’s never feet first, it’s always head first. There’s no one on our team who hustles more than Casey Jennings. He just plays baseball hard all the time.
“It was such a huge play, and it just opened the doors for us.”
That uprising gave Fremont a 7-2 lead, but that would be it offensively as Aruba righthander Xander Bogaerts retired the final 10 batters he faced.
The Latin American champs (3-2) cut the gap to 7-4 in the fifth on an infield hit by Bogaerts, a double by Lynell Koolman, a sacrifice fly by Jair Bogaerts and an RBI single by Jiandido Tromp.
Knight came on in relief of Fremont starter Jack Veronin in the sixth and held on for the save despite yielding two runs in the seventh on an RBI triple by Shurman Marlin and a sacrifice fly by Loopstok.
Knight then issued a two-out walk before striking out Aruba leadoff batter Darwin Escobar looking in a game-ending 12-pitch duel.
Those guys never gave up- over there,” said Romero. “Those guys could just flat-out hit, and they just kept coming and coming and coming. Even when it was 7-2 I wasn’t feeling good. I knew they would come back and battle.”
Aruba outhit Fremont 12-5, with Tromp amassing three singles while Marlin tripled and singled, Koolman doubled and singled, and Xander Bogaerts and Loopstok each adding two singles.
Jennings was Fremont’s lone repeat hitter with two singles.
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