2C z MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019 z USA TODAY E3 SPORTS
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – For
the second consecutive day, a line drive
found the glove of Louisiana shortstop
Stan Wiltz and a dogpile ensued in the
infield at Lamade Stadium. Stan was
fine with all that.
Nothing seemed to go wrong for the
boys from River Ridge over the last week
in the Little League World Series, and
Stan’s catch ended the game and the
tournament Sunday, with Louisiana
shutting out Curacao 8-0 to win the
state’s first LLWS title.
“It felt like my glove was a magnet,”
said Stan, who got his team into the
championship on Saturday with a
game-ending unassisted double play
against Hawaii.
The team from suburban New Or-
leans fought its way back through the
losers’ bracket after dropping its open-
ing game of the tournament to Hawaii.
Louisiana won six games in eight days,
becoming the first team to win the LLWS
after dropping its first game since the
tournament expanded in 2001.
“People from New Orleans and Loui-
siana in general are very resilient type of
people,” manager Scott Frazier said.
“And this team exemplifies the resilien-
cy that we have from the area that we
come from.”
Frazier said he felt the momentum
shift for his team when it won its game
against Oregon. That win set the club up
for victories over some of the tourna-
ment’s best teams – New Jersey, Vir-
ginia, Hawaii and Curacao.
Pitcher Egan Prather tossed a two-hit
shutout Sunday, throwing 88 pitches
over six innings. His performance in the
championship game caps off a solid
tournament on the mound in which he
picked up two victories and struck out
19 batters in 14^1 ⁄ 3 innings.
“It makes my job really easy to mix it
up, pitches, when they can execute the
pitches,” Frazier said. “Everything
worked for him today.”
The offensive breakthrough came in
the fifth inning for Louisiana as the club
representing the Southwest region
scored four runs on four hits. Reece
Roussel smacked an RBI double that
was followed by Marshall Louque’s RBIsingle, his third hit of the day.
“We were going to get those guys, it
was just a matter of time,” Frazier said.
“We’ve been so locked in.”
Curacao, representing the Caribbean
region, threatened in the top of the
third. The team from Willemstad loaded
the bases with one out. But a sharp
ground ball to Marshall at third base re-
sulted in a force out at the plate, and a
few pitches later, Jurdrick Profar, the
youngest brother of Oakland Athletics
infielder Jurickson Profar, was thrownout trying to score on a wild pitch.
“Once I got that out, I knew I was set-
tled in,” Egan said.
With Louisiana’s victory, U.S. teams
have won back-to-back Little League
crowns for the first time since 2009,
when a team from Chula Vista, Califor-
nia, capped off a streak of five champi-
onships for the United States.
“I can’t process it,” Frazier said. “This
tournament started with approximately
7,700 teams, and here we are with the
best out of everybody. It’s just surreal.”Louisiana wins 1st Little League title
Tyler King
The Associated Press
Louisiana players celebrate after beating Curacao 8-0 during the Little League World Series at Howard J. Lamade Stadium.
EVAN HABEEB/USA TODAY SPORTS2016 and captured the Tour Champion-
ship on the same day. Woods won the
initial postseason gathering in 2007 and
in 2009.
Under cloudy skies amid unseason-
ably cool temperatures for Hotlanta,
McIlroy, who started the week five shots
out of the lead because of the new stag-
gered scoring format, shot a final-round
4-under-par 66 to finish at 18 under and
four shots clear of Xander Schauffele.
Schauffelewon $5 million for finish-
ing second at 14 under. Earlier in the day,
he made an ace on the ninth hole using a
5-iron from 240 yards.
McIlroy set up his best work this
week off the tee with his driver and then
cashed out on the greens. He made a 22-
foot putt for birdie on the seventh hole to
take the outright lead for the first time.
He made a 13-footer for birdie on the
13th. One of his most important strokes
came on the par-4 16th, where after
making bogeys on the previous two
holes, he canned an 8-footer for par to
preserve a two-shot lead.
On the next hole he made a 15-footer
for birdie to up his advantage to three
and he coasted down the hill on the
par-5 18th and capped his tour de force
with a birdie from 6 feet.
“Such a cool way to end what has
been for me a great season,” McIlroy
said as he walked off the final green to
loud cheers of “Rory, Rory, Rory.”
“I'll look back on this season, and
there's been a lot of good things that I've
done and try to improve for next year
again.“I've given myself so many chances,
and to win three times is awesome. I feel
like I could have won more. But to win
the FedExCup again, to persist the
whole way throughout the year, to keep
giving myself chances even when I was
getting knocked back and not be denied,
I'm very proud of myself, and I'm going
to enjoy this one tonight.”
It was McIlroy’s 14th top-10 finish in
19 starts this year on the PGA Tour. Earli-
er this season he won the Tour’s flagship
event, the Players Championship, and
the RBC Canadian Open. He has 17 Tour
titles.
In a tie for third at 13 under were Jus-
tin Thomas and world No. 1 Brooks
Koepka. Thomas, who shot 68, had
started the week with a two-shot lead
after winning last week’s BMW Cham-
pionship.
Koepka, the only other player besidesMcIlroy to win three times this season,
led by one with 12 holes to play. But he
lost his golf ball when he drove into the
trees on the seventh – that was a pretty
expensive lost ball – and took double
bogey 6 while McIlroy took the lead with
a birdie from 22 feet, his first outright
lead. Koepka also made three consecu-
tive bogeys on the back nine.
Koepka shot 72. He and Thomas each
won $3.5 million.
It was a long Sunday for all of the
players as each of the top four played 31
holes. Saturday’s third round was sus-
pended after lightning strikes that rat-
tled the grounds at East Lake Golf Club.
Five people were injured and taken to
local hospitals. All were released Satur-
day night. A sixth person was injured
and released at the scene.
McIlroy made 11 birdies in those 31
holes against four bogeys.McIlroy
Continued from Page 1C
as if he offended them by walking away.
This sentiment popped up else-
where, too, including former basketball-
coach-turned-radio host Dan Dakich,
burning up social media as he ques-
tioned Luck’s commitment, the severity
of his most recent injuries (calf, ankle)
and, even worse, took a swipe at the
mental anguish that Luck explained.
Thank you, Dan Dakich, for your con-
tribution to the notion that football
players are human beings.
One thing you didn’t see or hear:
Players, those currently or formerly in
the competitive arena, serving up any-
thing beyond respect and understand-
ing for Luck. They know. The sacrifice
and toll that it takes to play such a brutal
sport are tremendous. More power to
Luck, 29, to be honest enough with him-
self to make such a gut-wrenching deci-
sion. Who cares if there are morons who
just don’t understand.
“I think it takes an enormous amount
of courage, an immense amount of self-
refection and a lot of guts to do what
he’s doing,” J.J. Watt, the Texans’ all-pro
defensive end, told reporters after an
exhibition game at Dallas. “I’m sure
people have their ways of looking at it
and their ways of trying to say what they
would do in his shoes, but the truth is,
nobody’s in his shoes. Nobody’s had to
go through what he has had to go
through. Nobody has been through the
rehab and injuries.”
In seven NFL seasons (including the
one he missed while rehabbing from
surgery) and preparations for an eighth
season, Luck’s injury history includes:
Torn cartilage in two ribs. A partially
torn abdomen. A lacerated kidney. A
torn labrum. The calf injury, which ex-
tended to a high ankle sprain, that
dogged him this year, to the point wherehe didn’t take a preseason snap.
Watt, whose football medical history
includes back surgery, a torn abdomen
and torn elbow ligaments, can relate likeso many other players.
Sure, NFL players collect huge sala-
ries – and potentially really huge ones if
they are fortunate enough if they are
high-level players who can command a
second contract – but that doesn’t make
them any less human. They hurt, too,
physically and mentally.
In an age with increasing awareness
regarding the long-term effects of head
trauma, compounding risks and residu-
al effects from injuries to other parts of
the body, Luck probably will always find
himself paying a price for football, al-
though to what extent remains to be
seen. Certainly, Luck, whose last con-
tract was worth $120 million, is posi-
tioned better than most players. Many
less-affluent players, I’d suspect, would
be challenged to play through a few
more big paydays.
Still, let’s not forget that for Luck to
get to this point, he has paid with his
body and mind.
Baldwin, the former Seahawks re-
ceiver who battled through hip and knee
injuries last season, took to Twitter on
Sunday to mock the fans who booed
Luck – and anyone else, we can pres-
ume, lacking in respect for the human
element.
“How dare Luck not sacrifice his
body for MY entertainment,” Baldwin
tweeted. “Who cares if your shoulder is
too messed up to pick up your child.
Who cares if your knees are too messed
up to play with your kids. Who cares
about the quality of YOUR life, what
about the quality of MY Sundays?”
Unlike Baldwin and Gronkowski,
Luck doesn’t leave with a Super Bowl
championship on his resume.
But he has paid a Super Bowl toll
nonetheless.
And his retirement symbolizes this
much: It’s not about winning at all costs.Bell
Continued from Page 1C
Andrew Luck heads into retirement after going 53-33, completing 60.8% of his
passes for 23,671 yards and 171 TDs. GRACE HOLLARS/THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR