Chicago Rallies, But Seoul Team Takes Little League Championship
Tuesday, August 26th, 2014August 26, 2014
The Little League World Series was held on August 24 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, between South Korea’s national champions and the U.S. national champion—a team from the South side of Chicago out of the Jackie Robinson West Little League program. The program is held in Jackie Robinson Park, named for the baseball great Jackie Robinson, who was the first African American to play modern Major League baseball.
The Little League World Series is for children 11 to 13 years old. The tournament features 16 teams, 8 from the United States and 8 from other countries. All teams in the series represent a geographic region of the United States or the world.
The Americans played well in the tournament final but were out-hit by the Seoul team for a final score of 8-4. The South Korean team had a 7-run lead at one point in the game, but Chicago—known as a team that can come from behind—rallied, adding 3 runs in the sixth inning before the game ended.
One of the big stories of this year’s tournament was a player out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mo’ne Davis. Little League rules began allowing girls to try out for the sport after the organization lost a lawsuit filed by the National Organization for Women (NOW) in the 1970′s. Davis, 13, is the first girl to ever pitch a shutout (a complete game pitched by one pitcher in which the other team is allowed no runs) in a Little League World Series game.
The city of Chicago was planning a victory parade on August 27 for the home team.
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