Anchorage Daily News

Led by Garrett Brown, Dimond-West is going where no Alaska Little League baseball team has gone.

Brown, 12, pitched the game of his life Friday with 14 strikeouts to key a 1-0 victory over Washington in the semifinals of the Northwest Regional in San Bernadino, Calif.

The win lifted Dimond-West into the regional title game -- a first for an Alaska team in the tournament for 11- and 12-year-olds. Dimond-West will face unbeaten Oregon on Sunday night at 6 ADT in a nationally televised game on ESPN2.

With one more win, Alaska will advance to the prestigious Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

"I think now we have the right to dream big," Dimond-West manager Brad Lauwers said by cell phone.

Dimond-West got to this point by beating Washington, which had beaten the Alaskans 6-4 on a walk-off home run just two days earlier.

But this time around, Brown was on the mound. The hard-throwing right-hander was a strikeout machine, with only four other outs coming on ground balls or pop flies.

"I was just ready," Brown said. "I wanted to be on TV so everybody could watch us."

Now the entire country can catch the Alaskans mugging it up for the ESPN cameras.

"I'm gonna be smiling all the time," Brown said. "It's gonna be so much fun being on TV."

Dimond-West outhit Washington 6-3 and scored its lone run in the third inning. With the bases loaded, Sagan Osborne delivered the winning run with a ground ball to first base, scoring Tyler Thompson from third.

Osborne -- whose father Rusty is the head coach of the UAA men's basketball team -- has had quite a tournament. On Wednesday, he hit the first home run of his Little League career.

But Brown was the man Friday, striking out more batters than he ever had in a game and tossing the shutout in his team's biggest game of the season.

"He was incredible today," Lauwers said. "He came up big whenever he needed to."

Dimond-West is no stranger to the regional tournament, having qualified each of the last four years. But it's taken the team two years to get back to the semifinals.

In 2004, the team lost an 8-7 heartbreaker to top-seeded Washington, giving up four runs in the final inning.

This year they didn't waste their opportunity, pulling them one win away from becoming the first Alaska team to play in the Little League World Series.

"A lot of people have been cheering us on, saying stuff like 'Let's go Alaska,' " Brown said. "A lot of people hope we win because we've never made it this far. It's cool."

Lauwers has managed each of the Dimond-West teams that have played in the regional tournament, with each team including at least one of his three sons (Colton, Dylan and Payton).

The kids have been talking about going to Williamsport for the last few years. But for Lauwers, he's been thinking of it since his playing days.

"Personally, it's been a dream since I was 11 years old," said Lauwers, 47. "It would be huge."

Daily News reporter Van Williams can be reached at vwilliams@adn.com or 257-4335.

ON TV

SUNDAY: The game between the Dimond-West Little League team and Oregon will be shown at 6 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2 (cable Channel 30).

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