Not even a rain delay could water down Pepsi Cola\u2019s offensive fizz.<\/p>\n
Pepsi scored at least three runs in four of five innings at the plate to roll past Physicians East 14-5 Friday in the third and final game of the best-of-three Greenville Little League City Championship on Wednesday at Elm Street Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so proud of all the kids,\u201d Pepsi skipper Brian Miller said. \u201cIt\u2019s a long season. We\u2019ve been after it for four months. To end the season this way for our 12-year-old kids and all our players, I can\u2019t be more happy. I\u2019m so proud of every one of them. Tonight\u2019s game was a complete team win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grady Mabe was the winning pitcher, tossing the last 4.1 innings in relief. He shut down Physician East\u2019s bats after its early offensive production, yielding just two hits and two walks while striking out three.<\/p>\n
\u201cPutting a 10-year-old in there and shutting them down for four innings, I can\u2019t be more proud of him and everyone else,” Miller said.<\/p>\n
While Physicians East skipper Aaron Givens was rightfully proud of his team, he also gave credit where it was due.<\/p>\n
\u201cPepsi played a great game,\u201d he said. \u201cThey earned that championship, and hopefully we\u2019ll be back next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brickson Windham led off the game with a single up the middle for Physicians East (17-11), the North State League representative and its No. 6 seed, and scored when Wells Davis\u2019 ground ball took a big hop over the infielder and went to the wall.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the frame, Hayes Mulkey got Pepsi started with a single up the middle, and Jameson Mabe drew a walk. Two batters later, Grady Mabe tripled as the outfielder slipped trying to backtrack toward the ball that went over his head, driving in Mulkey and Jackson Mabe. Grady Mabe also scored on the play as the throw to third base went to the backstop, allowing him to race home to put Pepsi up 3-1.<\/p>\n
One-out walks were issued to Physicians East\u2019s Isaiah Outlaw and Baylor Keeter in the second inning. Two batters later, Davis\u2019 single and an error allowed Outlaw to score. Gannon Eason was walked to load the bases, and another free pass to Jackson Eason forced Keeter home.<\/p>\n
After Pepsi changed pitchers, Lincoln Parker looped a single over the head of Jace Sutton at first base to drive in Davis and Eason to give Physicians East a 5-3 advantage.<\/p>\n
Again Pepsi (22-7), the Tar Heel League champions and its No. 1 seed, roared back as James Lucas singled and scored two batters later on a hit by Luke Miller. Mulkey hit a one-hopper to the wall for a double to drive in Miller. Mulkey then scored as Physicians East caught Jameson Mabe in an extended rundown\u00a0\u2014 2-6-3-1-6 in the scorebook\u00a0\u2014 to put Pepsi back ahead 6-5.<\/p>\n
After a 53-minute rain delay, Pepsi\u2019s Jameson Mabe launched a 2-0 pitch high over the left-field wall and off the scoreboard for a two-run home run in the fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a big moment,\u201d Miller said. \u201cHe was the best hitter in Little League, so I knew at some point, you could only hold him down for so long. He hit a few off that scoreboard in batting practice, so I knew it was time and that was a big spot for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beasley then reached on a throwing error and scored two batters later on a single by Sutton for a 9-5 advantage.<\/p>\n
During the rain delay\u00a0\u2014 both teams vacated their dugouts and rested in the Elm Street Center across the street from the park\u00a0\u2014 Miller didn\u2019t see much of any discussions about the game or baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were eating ice pops and hanging out with both teams, so yeah there wasn\u2019t much strategy going on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pepsi added five runs in the fifth inning, sending 10 batters to the plate and collecting five more hits, finishing with 12 in the game.<\/p>\n
Mulkey finished 2-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and three runs scored. Luke Miller was 2-for-2 with a walk, an RBI and three runs scored. Sutton was 2-for-3 with an RBI, and Jameson Mabe was 1-for-1 to go with three walks\u00a0\u2014 one of them intentional\u00a0\u2014 two RBIs and three runs scored.<\/p>\n
After the game, Givens told his team to \u201cbe proud of what they\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a lot of people expected it,\u201d he said in reference to his team\u2019s run to the title series. \u201cI think a lot of our young really stepped up this year and made a lot of plays in the series and playoffs (and) regular season. So I think a lot of people are going to be worried about us next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller viewed his team\u2019s run to the title as an unforgettable experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll remember this for the rest of my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI came in as a coach last year and we lost in the second round. To come in and be able to do that this year\u00a0\u2014 my son Luke is 10\u00a0\u2014 I\u2019m just so proud of everyone and it\u2019s awesome. I can\u2019t describe it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not even a rain delay could water down Pepsi Cola\u2019s offensive fizz. Pepsi scored at least three runs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2323,2314,2317,2313,2413,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,91668,91669,1039],"class_list":["post-736957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-champion-seasons-in-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-pepsi","tag-pepsico","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116822613929423168","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}