Carsynn Meyer had played in Lamade Stadium before. The lights weren’t quite as bright then.
Now, Meyer and the rest of her Nevada teammates have a chance to make more history on the world’s biggest Little League stage.
Meyer, the first girl to play in the U.S. championship, had an RBI single to help Nevada beat Ohio 12-2 on Saturday and advance to the Little League World Baseball Series title game.
Meyer, who had played in an all-girls tournament at Lamade earlier in June, stepped to the batter’s box in the second inning to a roar of applause from the 20,000 fans. She proved she could play with the boys, delivering a single up the middle with the bases loaded to extend Nevada’s lead to three.
“It’s awesome, especially getting a hit,” Meyer said. “So, like, the first girl to get a hit in the U.S. championship? Awesome.”
Starting pitcher Owen Guzman had three hits, scored twice and pitched solidly for 3 2/3 innings to lead Nevada.
Defensively, the team from Henderson turned three double plays to help Guzman and reliever Payton Hinsen, tying an LLBWS record.
“I think we should have four,” Nevada manager Cory Edwards said. “I’m super proud of the pace that they work with. We work on that all the time, infield, outfield every day. I know we’re a pitching and defense team.”
It’s the second-straight finals appearance for a Nevada team after a squad from Las Vegas won the U.S. championship a year ago. That team lost in the finals. This team will face international champ Curaçao in Sunday’s finale.
“This right now feels pretty surreal,” Edwards said. “Somebody asked me before the game, ‘How are you feeling?’ I was just like, ‘just another day.’ I think when they started chanting my name is when I felt the weight of it, of what we just accomplished.”
Guzman opened the game with a triple and scored shortly thereafter, but Nevada broke the game open in the second inning. It scored five runs on four singles, two walks and a hit batter. Guzman was part of the cascade of runs, hitting a ground ball up the middle which scored Michael Guerrero.
Guzman’s third hit came in the bottom of the fifth, an infield single to second base. Three batters later, Brooks McFarland doubled to left field, scoring Guzman.
Bob Frazier led Ohio with two hits and an RBI.
Having played three extra games to get to the championship, the Great Lakes regional champions from Hamilton, Ohio felt they ran out of gas after outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 44-12 before running into Nevada.
“Maybe my team needed to play yesterday. We were kind of on a roll and then they outhit us, they put the ball in play, they moved the ball, and three double plays didn’t help us either,” Ohio coach Timothy Nichting said. “In my eyes, it just looked like nobody had any zip on our fastballs.”
After Guzman scored, Nevada added two more runs in the fifth and finished off the 10-run rule win.
Meyer had a feeling this was possible when she left her team in June to play in the all-girls tournament in Lamade.
“I definitely thought we could get here because during the practices we had before I left for Williamsport I just knew that we were a special group of players and we could make it very far,” Meyer said.
Ohio will play Japan in the consolation game at 10 a.m.
