Close win sends to Needville Little League to U.S. Championship Game

On Aug. 23, Needville Little League (NLL) secured its spot in the U.S. Championship Game of the 2023 Little League World Series (LLWS) by outlasting the team from Seattle in nine innings to win 1-0. The U.S. Championship Game is scheduled for Aug. 26 at 2:30 p.m.

“What an awesome moment,” NLL wrote in a postgame Facebook post. “Punching our tickets to the U.S. Championship Game!” 

The young men from Needville, a city approximately 40 miles southwest of Downtown Houston and home to nearly 3,000 people, are the incumbent Southwest Region champions, as previously reported by Houston Daily. This year marks the second straight year a team from the Houston area is in the annual baseball tournament. The Pearland Little League (PLL) earned a trip last year only to fall a game short of the U.S. title game.

Despite the game being a too close for comfort, NLL skipper Andy McRae said his boys didn’t lose focus, KPRC 2 reports. “We were gritty, you know, we pitch and play defense and we don’t believe in quitting,” McRae told KPRC 2. Per the station, the team has reeled off four consecutive victories since arriving in north central Pennsylvania about two weeks ago. “We’re basically taking one game at a time, but we just got to compete and be locked in,” player Michael Raven said in the report. “I know if we played how we’re supposed to, we could definitely do this.”

KTRK 13 reports that NLL starter Easton Benge hurled 90 pitches against the Northwest Region champions in 6 1/3 innings on the mound, retiring eight players and surrendering three hits. The back and forth prompted extra innings, and it was centerfielder Easton Ondruch who hit the go-ahead sacrifice fly to lift Needville to victory. Per KTRK, the U.S. Championship Game is on Aug. 26 at 2:30 p.m.