BC-BBY–Little League, 1st Ld-Writethru,0706

California remains unbeaten at Little League World Series

Eds: RECASTS throughout with late games; WILL be UPDATED with quotes.

AP Photos

By DAN GELSTON

AP Sports Writer

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) – Kalen Pimentel sure is having a grand time in the Little League World Series.

Pimentel hit his second grand slam in two games to lead undefeated Buena Vista of Vista, Calif., to a 9-3 win over Lafayette, La., on Tuesday night.

Pimentel’s fourth-inning slam broke the game open for Buena Vista (3-0) and followed one he hit Sunday that snapped a tie. Pimentel also tied a Little League World Series record for a six-inning game with 18 strikeouts on Saturday.

On the mound or at the plate, Pimentel is making Buena Vista a championship favorite.

Austin White earned the win for California, allowing one run and five hits over three innings.

Reed Reznicek added a two-run homer for Buena Vista and Royce Copeland pitched out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam when the game was still tight.

Trailing 5-1 entering the fourth, Lafayette (2-1) tacked on another run thanks to a throwing error and loaded the bases looking ready to get back into the game.

But Copeland struck out Brenn Conrad on a wild pitch and Alex Miller was thrown out at the plate for a double play. Then Copeland got Jace Conrad to strike out to end the rally as chants of “RBV! RBV!” erupted from the crowd.

Copeland struck out four in three innings of relief.

Pimentel made Lafayette regret the missed opportunity a little more with his grand slam off reliever Ryan Bergeron in the bottom half of the inning, giving him nine RBIs in three games.

Buena Vista already had a United States semifinal bid secured and seemed on its way to an early blowout, taking a 3-0 lead off losing starter Connor Toups in the first inning.

Lafayette’s Jace Conrad crushed a solo homer about 300 feet – or nearly 100 yards past the 205-foot center-field fence sign – in the third to make it 3-1.

Reznicek then added a two-run shot in the third for a 5-1 Buena Vista lead.

Canada 2, Russia 1

Alex Dunbar struck out 10 and tossed a four-hitter for Surrey, British Columbia (2-1). Moscow (0-3) committed two errors in the first inning that led to two unearned runs. Surrey didn’t get a hit in the inning, scoring one run on a wild throw and another on an RBI groundout from first baseman Jeff Degano.

Venezuela 4, Saudi Arabia 0

Victor Sequera and Richard Alvarez combined for eight strikeouts and allowed two hits for Latin America champion Valencia (1-2). Dhahran (0-3) failed to score a run in its three games.

AP-ES-08-23-05 2211EDT

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