Cody's Blog

The 2009 Little League World Series now marks the fifth straight time that a team from the Unites States has won the tourney, and it also marks the sixth time that a California team has won the LLWS. This was also a very special LLWS because the home run records for a team and for the whole tournament were broken. There was a record 64 homers jacked by all the teams at the tourney, and California shattered the record for a team with 19. (It was previously 15!) In the bottom of the fourth inning with the score tied at 3 apeice, the previous night’s slugger Bulla Graft hit a sharp, go ahead single to make the score 4-3 and that would be all that they needed to win their first LLWS against a team from China. Kiko Garcia pitched 3 and one third innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win in what is going to be one of  his greatest accomplishments. Who would have suspected that in the title game, California would not a hit a single bomb, and the Chinese (who had only three errors the whole tournament) would have two errors that would help catapult them to the Little League World Series Championship. (Photo of Bulla Graft’s game winning hit in the fourtth inning off of Chinese pitcher Chin Ou. Photo by Tom E. Puskar AP)