The 13-year-old slugger from Warner Robins, Ga., had the perfect remedy – take a hack at the first pitch in his first two at-bats.
Fromm’s homer and four RBI Saturday in a 6-3 win over Rapid City, S.D., at the Little League World Series helped him briefly forget about the pain.
“It hurt. I’m going to be honest, it hurt,” Fromm said. The first-inning homer to deep center and the third-inning sacrifice fly to the base of the center-field wall both came on first-pitch swings.
“Swing early, you don’t have to worry about it,” Fromm said. “You put the ball in play, only one swing hurts you.”
Those swings hurt South Dakota, too, which was eliminated from contention.
Pennsylvania 2, Rhode Island 0: A night after losing 1-0 to Kentucky, Clinton County, Penn. ace Alex Garbrick allowed just three hits and struck out six before another large crowd at Lamade Stadium. Wyatt Koch’s two-out single in the fifth drove home an insurance run that had fans roaring.
Cumberland, R.I. was eliminated, though that didn’t stop Pennsylvania from inviting the New England champions to accompany them on a victory lap around the stadium track to cheers from fans for both squads.
“That’s a classy team,” Rhode Island manager Dave Belisle said.
“I did say to the boys after that lap, ‘I just really want (Pennsylvania) to win, I really do.’ ... If they stay focused and they take the energy from the crowd, I don’t know how we would have played them. Not again anyways,” Belisle added.
Taiwan 20, Aruba 3: The 5-foot-6 Yang, one of the tallest players on the Taiwan team, made a leaping grab of Albert Pop’s line drive to save an extra-base hit in the third. The 12-year-old Yang also singled to load the bases before scoring on Chi-Ling Hsu’s first-inning double. The game ended after four innings because of Little League’s 10-run rule.
Saudi Arabia 4, Netherlands 2: Trailing by two runs, Christopher Gijsbers walked and Diamond Silberie doubled to put runners on second and third for the Netherlands with one out in the bottom of the sixth. Tyler Wilkins then came on in relief to end the rally and eliminate the Netherlands.
