Ottawa American 11s rally to top Peru in District 20 title game

OTTAWA — Although the Illinois District 20 Little League championship game was played under gloomy conditions on Sunday at Varland Park, the 11-year old All-Stars from Peru and Ottawa American each had their moments in the sun.

Peru, which had lost to Ottawa American in the opening game of the tournament and won two games to set up a rematch, scored a trio of runs in the top of the first inning and held a two-run advantage heading to the bottom of the sixth.

However, the hosts were able to rally with three tallies in the final half frame to pull off an exciting 8-7 come-from-behind victory to advance to this weekend’s Sub-State tournament in Peru.

“The start of the game wasn’t too fun, but the end sure was,” said Ottawa American’s Quinn Windy, who retired six of the seven batters he faced in relief of starter Liam Muffler (3 1/3 IP, 4 K) to earn the win and poked a two-run single in the sixth to tie the game. “We played really well as a team and we all kept our heads up the whole game. Everyone played their part.”

Following Windy’s clutch hit, Teague Carretto followed with a line drive hit to centerfield to bring home the winning run.

“This is a great group of very smart kids with similar abilities and no egos,” said Ottawa American manager Gary Windy. “It doesn’t matter what I ask of them, start, come off the bench, play a spot that they aren’t exactly happy with, they do it for the team and because they want to win.”

Peru grabbed the aforementioned early lead with an RBI single by Jack Bazydlo (3 for 4) and a two-run base hit by Aiden Dziarnowski.

Ottawa American tied things up in the second on a two-run single by Grant Muenchow and an error — then after Peru received an RBI hit from Bazydlo in the top of the thirdh — tallied twice in its half on a run-scoring single from Josh Armstrong and an RBI double off the bat of Cashton Dilley to lead 5-4.

“We couldn’t have gotten off to a better start for sure,” said Peru manager Jim Dziarnowski. “I still felt we were in a good spot going into the bottom of the sixth, but it came down to Ottawa American having last at-bats, putting the bat on the ball and a couple of plays we didn’t make there in the sixth.

“These kids did an awesome job this week. They battled back to get to here after losing the opening game of the tournament and really hung in there to the end. I couldn’t be more proud of the effort.

“(Starting pitcher) Casey Walter (5 1/3 IP, 3 K) is a work horse and tonight was typical Casey. He did a great job of making a good pitch when he needed to to get out a few jams. He did exactly what we needed him to do tonight, but sometimes things don’t work out the way we want them to.”

In the fourth, Peru rallied for three runs on an RBI groundout by Gavin Fivek, a steal of home by Kolten Leffelman, and a RBI single by Andrew Olivero — the latter ending Muffler’s day on the mound due to pitch count and brought in Windy with two outs and the bases loaded.

“I just try and stay relaxed and sometimes I hold my rosary for good luck,” said Muffler of his pregame routine. “I wasn’t really nervous at the start, but sometimes I struggle at the start and then do better as the game goes along. That’s kind of what happened tonight. It was also hard to warm up before the game like I wanted to with the bullpen being slippery from the rain.”

But on Windy’s third pitch, catcher Armstrong’s snap throw picked the runner off first base to end the threat and keep Peru within striking distance.

“We talked as a group from the start that defense is going to win us games,” said manager Windy. “We have worked on some setup plays like the one we used in the fourth and it paid off tonight. It was a 2-0 count with the bases loaded and we needed a play to get out of that jam.

“It was a huge play.”