Hudson Cowley singled home the winning run in the bottom of the sixth on the first day of the tournament. Henderson 6, Hamilton 5.
Ohio has been in the loser's bracket ever since. It has won five straight to get back.
Paseo Verde vs. West Side, Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC, for the U.S. championship.
How to watch
Date: Saturday, Aug. 29
First pitch: 3:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Howard J. Lamade Stadium, South Williamsport, Pa.
TV: ABC
Streaming: ESPN+ and the ESPN app
The international championship precedes it at 12:30 p.m. ET. Winners meet Sunday at 3 p.m. on ABC.
Nevada is 3-0 with all four pitchers available
Paseo Verde beat Hamilton 6-5, shut out Tacoma 5-0, and beat Davenport 14-6 on Wednesday.
Thirteen players under manager Cory Edwards: Michael Kleiner (1), Adrian Cruz (2), Owen Guzman (3), Payton Hinsen (4), Brooks McFarland (5), Hudson Cowley (6), Theo Bingham (7), Logan Edwards (8), James Esber (9), Michael Guerrero (10), Jace Ward (12), Carsynn Meyer (13), Maddox Bryan (14).
They run from Adrian Cruz at 4-foot-9 to Maddox Bryan at 5-foot-10 — thirteen inches across one roster. Two coach-son pairs: Cory and Logan Edwards, Lynn and Hudson Cowley.
Carsynn Meyer is the 26th girl ever to play in the Little League World Series. She and Kinley Rasmus threw a ceremonial first pitch with WPBL commissioner Justine Siegal on Tuesday. Rasmus went home Wednesday night. Meyer is still playing.
Wednesday against Iowa was the statement. Davenport's Cooper Thissen was throwing a no-hitter with 10 strikeouts before coming out at 65 pitches in the fourth, saved for a possible championship game. Henderson scored four before the inning ended, one in the fifth, and nine in the sixth — capped by a three-run Michael Guerrero double. Guerrero finished 2-for-3 with four RBIs.
This is the fourth straight year a Nevada team has reached Williamsport. Summerlin South won the U.S. championship last year before losing to Chinese Taipei.
Ohio has played six games, tied for the most in the tournament
West Side lost the opener, then beat Boerne 6-1, Bridgewater 10-0, West Chester 6-5, Southwest 6-1, Phenix City 11-2 and Davenport 7-1.
Thursday's win was a complete game from Walker Osborne — six innings, four hits, one run, four strikeouts, three walks. Hamilton scored four in the first on a Jack McAdams RBI single and a bases-clearing Bob Frazier triple, added one in the second on a Hudson Vonderheide single, and finished with twelve hits and zero errors.
Josiah Infante went 3-for-3 and handled nine chances in the field. Frazier drove in three on one hit.
Six games is a lot of pitching to burn, and it's the question hanging over Saturday.
Hamilton has been here before. West Side reached the 2021 championship game and lost 5-2 to Taylor North of Michigan.
Why a team can lose on day one and play for a title on day eleven
Karl Ravech has called this tournament for twenty years. He's doing it for the last time this week — ESPN laid him off in July after 33 years and gave him Williamsport as the final assignment.
Asked on Foul Territory what the biggest story of this year's tournament was, he said parity.
"Every year there are new stories, and it's binge viewing for people."
He's watched historically dominant teams — a 2009 California club he said destroyed everybody — and he's watched Maine-Endwell, a small town in upstate New York, win the whole thing. Cooper Thissen threw a no-hitter and homered in the same game this week and went home anyway.
Ravech also made a point about how the audience works. You can't drop in on one game. You have to watch ten or eleven days in a row, and by the end you know a kid named Boone Treadway plays short and matters.
Treadway plays short for Hamilton.
Full LLWS schedule, scores and every team's hometown. Rosters and recaps via Little League and GameChanger.