The Irmo All-Stars’ quest for the Little League World Series championship just got tougher.
Nevada’s Summerlin South scored in the bottom of the seventh to defeat the South Carolina team, 1-0, on Monday at Lamade Stadium.
The loss drops Irmo into the loser’s bracket of the LLWS. Irmo will play Hawaii in an elimination game on Tuesday at 3 p.m. The game will air on ESPN.
“In the end, it was a great baseball game and the fans got a treat,” Irmo coach Dan Bogan said. “Unfortunately, someone had to lose and we came out on the short end.”
Nevada plays the Metro/Midwest winner on Wednesday with the winner of that game advancing to Saturday’s U.S. Bracket championship game.
Monday’s game featured a pitchers’ duel between Irmo’s Joe Giulietti and Summerlin South’s Garrett Gallegos. It was the second appearance for both pitchers in the LLWS. Giulietti pitched 3.1 no-hit innings in Irmo’s 13-0 win over New England on Thursday.
They were dominant again on Monday before they both left the game at the 85-pitch limit for Little League.
Giulietti threw six no-hit innings, striking out 12 and walking one and left the game to a standing ovation. In 9.1 innings at the LLWS, he has struck out 20 and hasn’t allowed a hit.
Gallegos pitched 5.1 innings Monday, allowed five hits, walked one and struck out 12.
“I think we all know that Joe is special,” Bogan said. “Unfortunately, we really were hoping to get some runs early and keep him to 50 pitches. That way, we are prepared for later in the week. But it was a 0-0 game, their pitcher threw great and we had to go to 85. But yeah, Joe is special.”
Bogan went on to say that Giulietti is the best he’s coached in the 12 seasons with Irmo Little League, comparing him to the likes of Dutch Fork’s Will Taylor and Kevin Samonsky and Chapin’s Caden Reeves. Taylor is playing in the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league system, while Samonsky is at College of Charleston and Reeves is headed to Troy University.
Summerlin South manager TJ Fechser also had high praise for Giulietti.
“This guy was a crafty master,” Fechser said. “He was dealing. ... For me one of the greatest pitchers I have seen in youth baseball.
“But we countered with this guy to my left (Gallegos) and he competed like a dog and got at it. We made the plays and didn’t break when we were in tight situations.”
In the seventh inning and beyond, a runner begins the inning at second base. Irmo had a chance to take the lead in the seventh but left a runner at third.
Irmo pitcher Brady Westbrooks and shortstop Preston Ware made a pair of strong defensive plays in the bottom of the seventh to get the first two outs of the inning.
With a runner on first, Nevada’s Jayden Lee singled to move Griffin Vargas to second. Then, Cutter Ricafort singled to right field and the ball was misplayed, allowing Vargas to score the game-winning run.
This is the second time in the playoffs that Irmo has had to go to the loser’s bracket. It happened in the Southeast Region, when Irmo won two straight games to win the region title.
Irmo will now have to win three games to make it to the United States Bracket championship on Saturday.
Ware, Brody Miller, Ryder Tillitz, Ethan Bennett and Brayden Gerard each had hits for Irmo, which left nine runners on base.
“The biggest thing is we couldn’t the clutch hit at the right time,” Bogan said. “Kudos to their pitchers. They made good pitches when they needed to.”
Bogan said Westbrooks will get the start on the mound in Tuesday’s game and then Irmo will figure it out from there, adding he will try and piece the pitching together each day. Giulietti wouldn’t be able to pitch again until Saturday because of how many pitches he threw against Summerlin.
“It’s one game at a time ... and survive and advance at this point,” Bogan said.
Dawn Staley’s message to Irmo All-Stars
The Irmo Little League All-Stars took the field Monday for their second game at the Little League World Series.
Irmo faced Summerlin South of Nevada in a winner’s bracket game among the United States teams. But before they took the field, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley delivered a message to the team as they watched on an Ipad.
“What’s going on? To my Irmo Little League team that is advancing in the Little League World Series. You all make us so proud. We are behind you 100 percent. Keep going, keep fighting the way we do here at South Carolina. Congratulations so far, but we aren’t done,” Staley said.