Henderson team moves 1 win away from Little League World Series

Pitcher Gunnar Gaudin, with the Paseo Verde Little League team facing elimination Thursday, stepped up to make sure his club lived to play another day.

Gaudin threw a shutout to lift the Henderson squad to a 4-0 win over North Boulder (Colorado) in the Mountain Region semifinals in San Bernardino, California. Paseo Verde (3-1) will play Dixie (Utah) in the championship game at 2 p.m. Friday. The game will be televised on ESPN. The winner advances to the Little League World Series, which begins Wednesday in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Gaudin held North Boulder (1-2) to two hits while striking out five. The Colorado team never mounted a serious scoring threat.

Caleb Gomez got Paseo Verde’s offense started by leading off the first inning with a triple. He scored one batter later when Russell McGee grounded into a fielder’s choice to put his team up 1-0.

Oliver Johnson, who went 2-for-3, added to Paseo Verde’s lead when he scored on a fourth-inning wild pitch. The team added two more runs in the fifth inning with the help of two North Boulder errors.

Gaudin closed out the game in the sixth. He faced just three batters the final inning after inducing his second double play of the afternoon.

Review-Journal reporter Jeff Wollard can be reached at jwollard@reviewjournal.com.