It was a crushing start to the 2023 Little League World Series for the team from Media, Pennsylvania.
The Media little leaguers, who emerged from the Mid-Atlantic region, were on the losing side of a low-scoring battle with Needville, Texas, on Wednesday night in Williamsport.
Needville, which won the Southwest region, broke a 0-0 deadlock in the fourth inning with a pair of unearned runs for the game's first lead. After answering back with one run in the fifth, Media got the tying run on second base with two outs in the bottom of the sixth but failed to force extra innings.
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The hard-fought 2-1 defeat doesn't mark the end of Media's Little League World Series. However, the team will now be playing to keep its season alive in the elimination bracket of the double-elimination tournament.
Media will play in a win-or-go-home showdown on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. The squad from Delaware County will square off against the loser of Thursday's matchup between Seattle of the Northwest region and Gray, Maine, of the New England region.