Danny Leon's arm was hurting, meaning Conejo Valley East Little League (Thousand Oaks, Southern California) all-star team manager Tom Ginther had to use plan 'B' when he needed a relief pitcher in the West Region championship game against Green Valley Little League (Henderson, Nevada).

Right-hander Tyler Karp, who had pitched only seven innings since the start of the international tournament, stepped in with the game on the line and delivered two-plus innings of shutout relief pitching.

And while Leon's arm was ailing, his bat was the perfect cure.

Leon crushed a long home run in the first inning to give his team an early lead, then delivered a momentum-swinging solo shot in the fifth as Conejo Valley East defeated Green Valley 8-5 before 7,200 onlookers at Al Houghton Stadium in San Bernardino, California.

The win was Conejo Valley's seventeenth consecutive victory since the start of the international tournament, and advanced the District 13 champions to the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Conejo Valley East eventually finished as the United States champion and Little League World Series runner-up.

"They're a powerful team," said Taylorsville (Utah) Little League manager Brian Miller after Conejo Valley East rolled past his team 10-1 in pool competition at the region tournament. "They could play with the fourteen-year-old teams in our state."

"They have all the tools," concurred Green Valley manager Don Harrison, whose team suffered its only two losses of the summer at the hands of the Southern California champions. "Without question they're a good team."

Leon had pulled a muscle in his right forearm in Conejo Valley East's 3-1 win over Visalia National (Northern California) Little League in the semifinal round, and Ginther elected to move his starting shortstop to first base for the title game to lessen the strain on his arm while keeping his bat in the lineup. The move paid off when Leon followed Timmy Ginther's leadoff double with a mammoth home run well beyond the left field fence in the bottom of the first inning, giving Conejo Valley a 2-0 edge. John Lister's two-run homer to center field in the third inning helped the Ventura County team built a 6-1 edge, and after Green Valley roared back with a four-run rally in the top of the fourth, Leon's solo homer in the bottom of the inning helped put Conejo Valley back in control of the game.

"Danny can't pitch for us any more," said Tom Ginther after the championship game. "But he sure can hit the ball."

Karp was superb in his relief effort. Green Valley had climbed back into the game on Chad Whiteaker's three-run homer and Cory Welch's two-out RBI triple when the right-hander moved from shortstop to the mound. With the potential tying run on third base and Green Valley's cleanup hitter stepping to the plate, Karp registered an inning-ending strikeout, then allowed only one hit while striking out three more batters over the next two innings. Twenty-two of Karp's 26 pitches went for strikes during his relief stint.

"Their pitcher did a good job," said Harrison of Karp's relief work.

"Everything was a breaking ball, mixed with fastballs here and there," explained the Green Valley manager. "He was keeping us off-balance. It was a great move by them."

The championship game win was Conejo Valley East's second over Green Valley at the region tournament. In pool competition, Conejo Valley erased an early 2-0 deficit before downing the seven-time Nevada champions by a 7-4 score.

"I have all the respect in the world for that Nevada team," said Tom Ginther. "This is the first time we've had to beat a team twice to win a tournament. If we can come back and beat a team like that again, that puts a lot of confidence into your players."

Green Valley, which reached a region championship game in the major baseball division for the second time in four years and the third time in the league's history, scored 9 of the 20 runs allowed by Conejo Valley East prior to the Little League World Series. Only two other teams scored more than one run against the Southern California champions' dominant hurlers.

Cody Thompson and Jordan Brower anchored a Conejo Valley pitching staff that allowed only seventeen hits while striking out 71 batters at the region tournament. Three pitchers combined on a sixteen strikeout no-hitter in the team's opener, when the Southern California kingpins thrashed Northern California's Visalia National Little League 12-0. No Northern California batter hit a ball out of the infield as Thompson struck out eight batters in three innings before giving way to Karp and Sean McIntyre.

Two days later, Brower, McIntyre, and Leon combined on a four-hitter as Conejo Valley East downed Taylorsville 10-1. Brower allowed three hits and an unearned run in four innings to earn the victory. The Southern California champions topped their fourteen hit output in the opener with fifteen hits against the perennial Utah champion. Conejo Valley East finished the tournament with a .360 team batting average.

"Our numbers one, two, and three batters are hitting the ball, and we're getting some . . . run production from them," said Tom Ginther. Timmy Ginther and Leon, the first two hitters in the Conejo Valley batting order, each had three hits in the game, while Thompson and ninth-place hitter Hayden Cronebold hit two-run homers.

The two early wins clinched a semifinal round berth for Conejo Valley, which then closed pool competition with a 7-4 win over Green Valley and an 8-1 decision over Gillette (Wyoming) Little League. Karp and Thompson hit three-run homers against Green Valley, while Thompson shook off a pair of two-run homers in a twelve strikeout, five-hit complete game pitching performance.

"He mixed up his pitches well and kept them guessing," said Tom Ginther of the tall right-hander's effort.

"I was impressed with his fastball and how he controls his off-speed pitches," added Harrison. "He did a great job."

Four days later, Conejo Valley moved into the championship game when Brower scattered two hits over five innings in a 3-1 semifinal round win over Visalia National. Lister lined a two-run homer off the scoreboard in right field in the fourth inning to open the scoring. Visalia's Tanner Mendonca sliced the lead in half with a solo homer in the fifth, but Leon, whose international tournament batting average actually fell to .536 during the region tournament, added a solo home run over the center field fence in the fifth.

Brower faced only seventeen batters through five innings, and Thompson struck out the side in the sixth to move Conejo Valley into the championship game.

They would meet a Nevada team that tallied 50 runs in four pool games and then cruised past Deer Valley Little League (Glendale, Arizona) by a 15-2 score in the semifinal round. Green Valley had used a series of bunts to edge the Arizona champions 4-2 in pool competition, but opted for the long ball in the teams' second meeting. Cameron Harper hit a pair of two-run homers, while David Day and Brett Harrison also cleared the fences for the Nevada champions.

"They teed off pretty good on us," said Deer Valley manager Fred Dahl. "They saw the ball well (and) hit the ball well."

"I was really pleased with how we came out swinging the bats," said Harrison. Harper's first home run and Day's three-run shot gave Green Valley a 5-0 lead before Deer Valley came to the plate.

Although Green Valley's offense was in-form, Harrison knew his team would have its hands full against the Southern California juggernaut.

"Without question, Conejo Valley is the cream of the crop," said Harrison as his team prepared for the championship game. "They have a lot of tools. They have great athletes. They are the team to beat."

Conejo Valley's prowess was also evident to one of the teams it eliminated early in the international tournament.

"I think they are the best team in the country, I really do," said Saticoy Little League (Santa Barbara, Southern California) manager John Zeman after watching the U.S. regional finals on television. Conejo Valley had edged Zeman's team 2-1 in the Southern California Section 1 championship game.

"They are very well-coached and fundamentally sound," he added. "They won't beat themselves."

Zeman's assessment was proven correct later that month, when Conejo Valley East blanked Lamar National Little League (Richmond, Texas) 4-0 in the United States championship game.

Although the team fell 5-2 to Curacao's Pabao Little League in the Little League World Series championship game the next evening, Ginther was more than happy with his team's showing.

"Number two in the world overall," said the SoCal manager after falling to the Caribbean champions. "That's not bad."

Linescores:

Pool Play Game 1	1	2	3	4	5	6		R	H	E
Conejo Valley East (SoCal)	5	3	0	1	0	3		12	14	0
Visalia National (NoCal)	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	1
Pool Play Game 2
Taylorsville (Utah)	0	1	0	0				1	1	2
Deer Valley (Arizona)	8	0	3	x				11	11	1
Pool Play Game 3
Green Valley (Nevada)	3	5	11	9				28	24	0
Gillette (Wyoming)	0	0	0	0				0	1	4
Pool Play Game 4
Conejo Valley East (SoCal)	3	2	3	0	2	0		10	15	1
Taylorsville (Utah)	0	0	0	1	0	0		1	4	3
Pool Play Game 5
Green Valley (Nevada)	0	0	4	0	0	0		4	5	1
Deer Valley (Arizona)	0	0	2	0	0	0		2	4	4
Pool Play Game 6
Visalia National (NoCal)	2	0	6	6				14	10	2
Gillette (Wyoming)	0	0	0	0				0	1	6
Pool Play Game 7
Deer Valley (Arizona)	5	14	8	6				33	27	-
Gillette (Wyoming)	0	0	0	1				1	-	5
Pool Play Game 8
Taylorsville (Utah)	1	0	0	0	0			1	2	2
Visalia National (NoCal)	3	3	1	2	2			11	15	1
Pool Play Game 9
Conejo Valley East (SoCal)	0	0	3	0	1	3		7	6	1
Green Valley (Nevada)	2	0	0	0	0	2		4	5	3
Pool Play Game 10
Visalia National (NoCal)	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	2	1
Deer Valley (Arizona)	6	0	0	0	0	x		6	9	0
Pool Play Game 11
Green Valley (Nevada)	4	1	9	0				14	14	1
Taylorsville (Utah)	1	0	0	0				1	2	2
Pool Play Game 12
Gillette (Wyoming)	1	0	0	0	0	0		1	3	2
Conejo Valley East (SoCal)	5	0	0	2	1	x		8	8	0
Semifinal Round
Green Valley (Nevada)	5	0	3	2	5			15	17	0
Deer Valley (Arizona)	1	0	0	0	1			2	6	1
Semifinal Round
Visalia National (NoCal)	0	0	0	0	1	0		1	2	0
Conejo Valley East (SoCal)	0	0	0	2	1	x		3	4	0
Championship Game
Green Valley (Nevada)	0	0	1	4	0	0		5	6	0
Conejo Valley East (SoCal)	4	0	2	1	1	x		8	7	1

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