SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — The championship of the Little League World Series on Sunday will feature a rematch of the Great Lakes regional title game, Ohio against Michigan.
Michigan won the first time, 9-1, but Ohio can forget all about that if it comes back in the biggest game of all.
It will be the first time two teams from the same region have played for the LLWS title, a product of COVID-19 travel restrictions that kept international clubs away.
No team from Oho has ever won the tournament.
Cooper Oden struck out six and allowed two runs over five innings Saturday as the League World Series. The West Side Little League squad from Hamilton hung on to beat South Dakota 5-2 in a semifinal.
Trailing 5-1 entering the bottom of the sixth, South Dakota rallied for three straight singles off Oden to score a run.
South Dakota then loaded the bases off Ohio reliever Kaleb Harden and brought the winning run to the plate with nobody out. But Harden picked up three outs, the last on a force at third, to send Ohio into the title game.