Sweetwater Valley LLWS ends abruptly

By Ramon Scott
Updated: August 22, 2026

SVLL catcher Sebastian Pino watches the call as Lorenzo Quintero scores.

2026 LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL

Team lacked continuity it showed throughout national tournament until Williamsport arrival

ECS staff report

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Sweetwater Valley Little League earned its place among the best teams in the country. Nothing that happened during two difficult days in South Williamsport can erase that accomplishment.

It also cannot erase the disappointment.

The Bonita club arrived as the West Region champion and one of the leading favorites to win the United States tournament. Sweetwater Valley departed without a victory after Friday’s excruciating 1-0 loss to Davenport Northwest of Iowa and Saturday’s stunning 12-2, four-inning elimination loss to Phenix City, Alabama.

The defeats could hardly have been more different.

Sweetwater Valley nearly survived one of the tournament’s greatest pitching performances in its opener. One day later, a team that had appeared polished and fundamentally sound throughout its championship run unraveled defensively against Alabama.

California scored only two runs in two games and finished 0-2—a result that never appeared likely while Sweetwater Valley was powering through Southern California and the West Region.

The pre-tournament favorite did not resemble one once it reached Williamsport. Still, that status had not been handed to Sweetwater Valley. The team earned it through the depth, pitching, power and game awareness it displayed throughout the road to Pennsylvania.

Against the strongest field of its season, however, the bats went silent before the defense came apart.

A PITCHING DUEL FOR THE AGES

Sweetwater Valley’s opener was decided by one swing and two dominant pitching performances.

Cooper Thissen led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run to center field, then struck out 15 over 5⅓ hitless innings as Davenport Northwest defeated Sweetwater Valley, 1-0.

Anthony Johnson Jr. completed the combined no-hitter, entering with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth before recording consecutive strikeouts. Johnson ended the game by freezing James Griffin with a full-count pitch on the corner.

Iowa recorded 17 of its 18 defensive outs by strikeout.

Sweetwater Valley ace Noah Kirk was nearly as dominant. After surrendering Thissen’s leadoff home run, the right-hander retired the next 14 hitters he faced. Kirk finished with 13 strikeouts, allowing only two hits and two walks over 4⅔ innings.

Kirk and Thissen were already familiar with one another from USA Baseball. Both participated in the organization’s 2026 12U National Team Training Camp and advanced to its 24-player extended roster. The two also pitched during the same Training Camp finale in June.

Their Williamsport matchup lived up to that pedigree.

Kirk threw 85 pitches and deserved far more than a loss beside his name. Against nearly any other opposing pitcher, his performance would have carried Sweetwater Valley into the winners’ bracket.

Thissen was simply one run better.

Even after being no-hit, Sweetwater Valley remained one swing from winning. California loaded the bases in the sixth and forced Davenport to remove Thissen after he reached 90 pitches. Johnson then entered the most pressurized situation of the game and struck out both hitters he faced.

Sweetwater Valley had been overpowered, but it had not been outclassed.

That distinction disappeared Saturday.

ALABAMA TURNS MISTAKES INTO A ROUT

Sweetwater Valley scored its first run of the tournament when Sebastian Pino delivered an RBI single in the second inning, giving California a 1-0 lead over Phenix City.

Instead of settling the West champions, the early advantage preceded their most unstable stretch of the summer.

Alabama answered with three runs in the bottom of the second. Lorenzo Quintero tied the game with a sacrifice fly, an errant throw on Jerry Taylor’s bunt brought home another run and Layton Burt’s sacrifice bunt helped Phenix City take a 3-1 lead.

The Southeast champions continued applying pressure, and Sweetwater Valley never regained its composure.

Easton Allen opened the third with a single before Kinley Rasmus drove an RBI double to the wall. Casen Smith followed with a run-scoring single, and Cam Lee launched a two-run opposite-field home run to extend Alabama’s lead to 7-1.

Phenix City then scored five runs on only two hits in the fourth. Another California error, three walks, a sacrifice fly and an RBI single turned the game into a 12-2 mercy-rule defeat.

Alabama did not overwhelm Sweetwater Valley with hits. It put the ball in play, executed its bunts and forced California to make decisions under pressure.

Sweetwater Valley repeatedly made the wrong ones.

Errors accounted for some of the damage, but the breakdown extended beyond the official scorebook. Late reactions, rushed throws and poor situational awareness gave Alabama extra outs and additional bases.

That was perhaps the most surprising element of Sweetwater Valley’s exit. Throughout its postseason run, the team had appeared to understand the nuances of winning baseball. Against Phenix City, those details became its undoing.

Sweetwater Valley finished with six hits—one more than it recorded against Iowa—but never mounted a meaningful comeback. Pino and Tempe Tran drove in California’s two runs.

Urijah Berklite worked all four innings for Alabama, allowing six hits and two runs, one earned, while striking out six and walking one.

RASMUS EMERGES AS A TOURNAMENT STAR

Sweetwater Valley’s final game also provided another showcase for Kinley Rasmus, who has established herself as one of the tournament’s premier two-way players.

Rasmus threw six innings of one-hit, shutout baseball with eight strikeouts during Alabama’s opening 2-0 loss to SoundView, Washington. Against Sweetwater Valley, she went 2-for-3 and delivered the towering RBI double that began Phenix City’s decisive third-inning rally.

Her combination of front-line pitching and middle-of-the-order power gives her a strong argument as the best two-way player remaining in the United States bracket—and possibly the best overall two-way performer still playing in South Williamsport.

Lee was the offensive star Saturday, finishing with three RBIs and delivering the game’s biggest swing with his two-run homer. Rasmus, however, remains the player most capable of changing Alabama’s tournament path from both the mound and the batter’s box.

MORE THAN TWO GAMES

Sweetwater Valley’s players will understandably remember the disappointment first.

They traveled to Williamsport expecting to contend for a national championship. Instead, they were no-hit in one game, committed a series of costly mistakes in the next and returned home without a victory.

For 12-year-old players, the larger perspective will not arrive immediately.

Eventually, the group can look back on everything required to reach South Williamsport: surviving one of the country’s deepest Little League territories, winning the Southern California championship and then capturing the West Region title.

Sweetwater Valley proved it belonged in the field. It simply did not play its best baseball once it arrived.

The 0-2 record represents what happened during two games in Williamsport. It does not fully represent the team that earned the opportunity to play them.

That difference may be difficult to appreciate now, but it will become the lasting truth of Sweetwater Valley’s championship summer.