Best of the West

  By CHACE BRYSON | Editor

  There can only be one first. And the Nogales National All-Stars are it. 

  With their 11-4 landslide victory over Puerto Rico on Aug. 4, the boys from Arizona became the first U.S. team to leave Livermore as Intermediate Little League World Series champions. 

  Despite trailing Puerto Rico 3-1 after the first two and a half innings, the game never felt as though it was out of the West’s hands. And as soon as Dustin Bermudez “” who would’ve been awarded Tournament MVP if there were such a thing “” hit his go-ahead three-run homer in the bottom of the third, the team’s momentum became an unstoppable force. 

  Nogales left little doubt as to who the most complete team of the 11-team tournament was. Its win over Puerto Rico completed a perfect run through the qualifying rounds and the Little League World Series, 13-0 overall. The team showcased all of its talents on Monday, banging out 12 hits and making spectacular defensive plays across the diamond.

  “I was telling the kids that the Top 10 was going to run out of plays with this game,” West coach Jorge Guerrero said, referring to the fact that the game had been nationally televised on ESPN2. A backwards-diving catch by Bermudez, playing shortstop and tracking the ball into shallow left field, did make the network’s elite list of top plays, ranking No. 2 on the day. 

  “They played great, and they hit a lot today. That’s the way we we’ve been hitting since the start of the tournament. We slacked off a little bit, but today they came through.”

  The West would score five runs in the third inning to take a 6-3 lead, and then blew the game open with five more runs in the fourth. The fourth inning rally featured a pair of two-run doubles by Jorge Bojorquez and Paul Carreno. 

  Once he had an eight-run advantage, Nogales starting pitcher Herman Fajardo settled down and allowed just one hit across innings four through six. 

  “In the third inning, I started hitting my spots more,” Fajardo said. 

  He did surrender one run on three hits in the seventh before inducing a ground ball to second base for the game’s final out. 

  “He was a bulldog up there on the mound,” Guerrero said of Fajardo. “He started to get in a little trouble, and every inning he got out of it. He just kept on getting off of it. His cutter was working for him … He did a great job.”

  Among the many offensive standouts in the final were Bermudez (2-for-4, 2 runs, 3 RBI), Bojorquez (1-for-3, run, 2 RBI), Aaron Solis (2-for-4, 2 runs) and Mario Duarte (1-2, 3 runs).

  Puerto Rico was led by Robert Addarich (2-for-3, double, 2 RBI), Leonoardo Lizardi (2-for-3, RBI) and Edgar Baez (2-for-3, run).

  The lives of the West All-Stars will be shocked back to reality pretty quickly. Schools in Nogales begin a new year on Tuesday, and the players are likely to be back in classrooms by Wednesday. But they’ll certainly get an opportunity to soak in hometown glory.

  “People are going to be waiting for us at the airport,” Guerrero said. “There’s going to be some partying down in Nogales.”