Needville, Texas, knocks off Media, Pennsylvania, to open Little League World Series
WILLIAMSPORT, Pennsylvania (KTRK) -- Needville needed runs, but DJ Jablonski locked it down for his squad.
Texas' representatives in the Little League World Series earned a victory over a Media, Pennsylvania, team that virtually claimed homefield advantage Wednesday night.
Jablonski threw 10 strikeouts in five and two-thirds innings to support a 2-1 win for the Southwest Region champs.
The team from Media had no answers for Jablonski, who allowed the Mid-Atlantic champ's only run in the fifth inning. Media, located outside of Philadelphia, is a three-hour drive from the LLWS site in Williamsport.
Needville next faces Midwest Region champs, Fargo, North Dakota, on Friday. That game will air on ABC13's sister network ESPN at 6 p.m.
'Living the dream'
Ahead of Wednesday evening's game, Needville's manager knew they had a challenge.
"We actually did a coin flip for sides, and we got visitor, so we thought that was pretty fitting," joked Needville manager Andy McRae in an interview with ABC13 on Wednesday.
Needville swept through the regional in early August - the 16th team from the Houston area in the long history of the Little League World Series.
SEE RELATED: Needville Little League completes undefeated Southwest Regional run to earn trip to Williamsport
After a parade in Fort Bend County, another in Williamsport, and a frenzied week of travel and media engagements, they took the field in front of a crowd of more than 15,000.
"Our kids will enjoy it, honestly. There will be a few minutes of some nerves, but every time they've had that, we shut the gate, we have a little talk, and they just buy into baseball," McRae said earlier Wednesday.
Win or lose - it is already the experience of a 12-year-old's lifetime.
"They're living the dream. Every kid that plays baseball growing up in youth sports - they're getting to live it. They're superstars for the week. They're eating it up. It's great to watch," McRae said.
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