LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES : Irvine’s Garcia Gets No-Hitter : Pitcher Also Homers to Help Defeat Dover, 13-0

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. —  Wednesday afternoon would have been the perfect time for Aron Garcia to hit up his father, Bob, for a little raise in his allowance.

Bob Garcia, coach of the Irvine Northwood Little League all-star team, was in no mood to reject anything his 12-year-old son might have requested, this side of a new sports car.

Not after watching Aron throw a no-hitter, strike out 11 and collect four hits, including a two-run homer, to lead Irvine to a 13-0 victory over Dover, N.H., in the first round of the Little League World Series at Howard J. Lamade Stadium.

A crowd estimated at 10,000 watched Irvine bomb Dover pitcher Brian Stewart for 13 hits. One of Ryan Jones’ three hits was a home run, Steve Mendoza also homered, and Ryan O’Toole added two hits as Irvine earned a berth in today’s semifinals against Chesterfield, Ind.

The victory improves Garcia’s record to 10-0, including nine shutouts, in the tournament, which has now lasted 17 games for Irvine. It was the right-hander’s first no-hitter.

Afterward, the younger Garcia was barraged by cameras, microphones and television lights, but it was his father, Bob, who was glowing.

“I’m the proudest person in the world right now,” he said. “He’s exceeded every expectation a father could have for a son. I hope I can sit back some day and watch him play in the major leagues. Maybe even coach him.”

Aron didn’t need much direction Wednesday. All he needed was a baseball, a mound and a catcher to receive all the fastballs he zipped past Dover batters.

Garcia walked three and got tougher as the game went on, striking out the final seven batters. Dover hit only one ball out of the infield.

Garcia was equally impressive at the plate, getting Irvine on the scoreboard with a two-run homer in the first inning and adding two singles and a double.

“It’s real surprising, because he just began swinging left-handed this year and didn’t hit that well in the regular season,” Bob Garcia said. “I’ve been telling him all these years that he’s a better left-handed hitter, and he never listened. But this year, I told him he will hit left-handed.”

Father knows best. Father also knows that Wednesday’s victory was a team effort, not just a case of one player overwhelming the opponent.

Irvine didn’t make any errors (Dover made four), and Garcia’s teammates did plenty of hitting.

“Aron shined, but we played as a team unit,” Bob Garcia said.

There was some question whether Irvine would play at all. With overcast skies and the definite threat of rain, World Series officials decided to push the start of the game, the second of Wednesday’s doubleheader, up half an hour.

As far as Garcia was concerned, sooner was better. His team hadn’t played since Saturday night. After spending Monday and Tuesday in town and watching Tuesday’s first-round games, the players were getting antsy.

“The kids were like a time bomb, ready to explode,” Garcia said.

They scored four runs in the top of the first, two on Garcia’s homer to left-center field and two on Jones’ homer to left, which landed half way up the hill beyond the fence.

Irvine added three runs in the second, one in each of the third and fourth, and four in the fifth. Mendoza lined his solo home run to center field in the fourth, and Loc Tran had an RBI double to highlight the fifth.

All of the hits came off Stewart, the Dover pitcher who seemed pretty intimidating to the Irvine players before the game. They had read newspaper accounts of this 5-foot 10-inch, 153-pound right-hander’s 6-0 tournament record, blazing fastball and tricky screwball.

“Everyone was telling us he’d be throwing 70 or 75 m.p.h., but when we got up there, it felt like we were in the batting cages,” Mendoza said. “We got pumped after we scored in the first inning and really started hitting.”

World Series Notes

The Little League World Series program doesn’t have records on no-hitters, but they are common at Williamsport. There were two thrown in last year’s series, both on the same day, by Sarasota, Fla.’s Phil Olson (5-0 over Brunswick, Md.) and Tainan, Taiwan’s Wu Chung-Liang (26-0 over Valleyfield, Quebec). . . . Irvine’s 11 a.m. (PDT) semifinal game against Chesterfield, Ind. today will be taped by ESPN and televised nationally at 5 p.m. Chris Greinke will be the starting pitcher for Irvine. The other semifinal, between Hua Lian, Taiwan, and Mora, Dominican Republic, will be televised live by ESPN at 2:30 p.m. . . . The heavy rains that were expected in Pennsylvania Wednesday afternoon never came, but Irvine and Dover did play the final two innings of their game in a steady drizzle. . . . Bob Garcia, Irvine coach, is feeling pretty confident about the chances of his team and Taiwan reaching Saturday’s championship game. “I know we’ll be there Saturday and give (Taiwan) a good game,” Garcia said. “As long as Chris Greinke is on, we’ll be fine.” . . . The 1947 Maynard Little League All-Star team of Williamsport, which won the first Little League World Series, is being reunited this week for the first time and will be honored at a banquet Friday. All 13 living team members, including present Californians Arthur (Butch) Laurenson of Rialto and Lou Baity of Los Angeles, and the co-managers will attend.