It’s been a long time since a Washington County team won a PONY League World Series title. Monongahela (1954) and Washington (1955) went back-to-back in the early days of the tournament. For just the third time in the 70 years since Reggie Bolden led the locals to the top of the PONY mountain, Washington County has a winner-take-all opportunity Wednesday night. The Host team is the last undefeated team in the field and will take on Chinese Taipei, winners of five straight elimination games. Pregame ceremonies at Historic Lew Hays PONY Field begin at 6:30 pm with team introductions shortly after 7:00 pm. Hear all of the action on WJPA-AM (1450) and online LISTEN HERE!
Wednesday, Aug. 13 — Bracket
IF Necessary game Chinese Taipei 5, Simi Valley 2
7:00 pm PONY World Series Championship: Washington County vs. Chinese Taipei
Tuesday, Aug. 12
Game 16: Division Final Washington County 11, Corpus Christi, TX 0 (5 inn.) Lucas Daniels homered for the second straight game and Clint Havanis was masterful on the mound as Washington County clinched a berth in Wednesday’s championship game, besting the South Zone entry in run-rule style. Kaden Harkins doubled home a run in the first and Niko Vitale scored on a error to give the Hosts a 2-0 lead. one inning later, with Andrew Irwin aboard, Daniels blasted a towering shot to left-center, igniting the crowd. Carson Simmers drove in another run later in the second and the blowout was on. Havanis allowed just a leadoff single in the bottom of the second, facing just two batters beyond the minimum, striking out seven. Washington County added single runs in the third and fourth then sealed the deal with a four-spot in the fifth, sending 10 batters to the plate. Vitale tripled home one run, Harkins singled in another and Ashton Fike’s pinch-hit double set the final score. With the win, the hosts await the Chinese Taipei / Simi Valley winner in the title game.
Game 15: Division Final Chinese Taipei 5, Simi Valley, CA 3 Chinese Taipei won a fourth straight game facing elimination and forced an If Necessary contest by handing the West Zone champions their first loss of the World Series. Chieh-Yu Sung singled home a pair of runs in the first, Zi-Han Yang delivered an RBI groundout i the third and a Tang-You Zhang squeezed home the final run in the fifth, extending CT’s consecutive run mark to 44. Simi Valley scored three times in the sixth, and brought the potential tying run to the plate in each of the final two innings. Riely Loggins doubled and went to third when Sawyer Jackson struck out but reached on a throwing error. Shane Smith’s ground out scored Loggins before JJ Vargas walked. Ean Devine doubled to drive in a pair, pulling Simi Valley within 5-3. Ting-Han Hung got the win, tossing 3.2 shut out innings, allowing four hits. Shih-Min Chung worked the final 3.1 innings without allowing an earned run to pick up the save.
Game 14: Corpus Christi 9, Bay County 4 A six-run second put the South Zone team in control and JJ de los Santos cruised to a complete-game victory to stay alive in the tournament. Bay County got back in the game with two runs in the fourth, two more in the fifth but didn’t have another base runner. Five different batters drove in runs for the Texans who took advantage of four errors as well. Corpus Christi banged out 13 hits to earn a rematch with Washington County in the Division Final.
Game 13: Chinese Taipei 13, Monterrey, Mexico 0 The Asia-Pacific champions extended their consecutive runs mark to 39 with the five-inning win, eliminating Monterrey. Home runs by Ting -Han Hung, En Chen and Yi-Le Li paced the 15-hit attack. Chieh-Yu Sung drove in three runs to help Hung to the win. CT sent 12 batters to the plate in the final inning, scoring six runs and invoking PONY’s run rule. Monterrey managed just two hits in the loss.