The Virgin Islands 9-10 Little League defeated Costa Rica 10-0 on Tuesday in their final, round-robin game in Pool C play of the 2013 Latin American Regional 9-10 Little League Tournament in Panama City, Panama.
Raphael Jackson III carried the V. I. team to victory over Costa Rica with a strong game at the plate and on the hill. Jackson went a perfect at the plate for V. I. team. He singled in the second inning and doubled in the fourth inning.
Costa Rica couldn’t get anything going so long as Jackson was on the hill. He held Costa Rica hitless over 3 1/3 innings, allowed no runs, walked six and struck out nine. Jackson was relieved by Janoi Rawlins, who faced four batters, struck out two of them, walked one and allowed one hit.
Eight runs in the opening three innings allowed the V. I. team to easily put away Costa Rica. An RBI groundout by Kahleem Jacobs and a two-run double by Caliquan Maynard in the first inning accounted for the V. I. team’s first three runs. In the second inning, a two-run single by Jackson and an RBI single by Jacobs fueled the team’s offense early. After scoring three runs twice, the V. I. team got two-run rallies in the third inning and the fourth.
The V. I. team’s offense was led by Jackson’s 2 for 2 with 1 RBI, Jacobs’ 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs and Shakeem Sackey 2 for 3.
The V. I. team closed out pool play. There are three pools in the tournament, the winner of each pool advances to the semifinals along with the team with the best runs-allowed ratio in the group of the remaining teams. The team now waits for the rest of pool play to be completed to see if they will advance to the semifinals.