Lewisberry, Pa. wins U.S. Championship, advances to LLWS final

The closest thing to a home team at the Little League World Series emerged from the pack on Saturday to claim the United States Championship.

The little leaguers from Lewisberry, Pa. — a community of 356 people that's located 97 miles south of the host city Williamsport — earned the crown by knocking off the very capable team from Pearland, Texas, 3-2.

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The game wasn't decided until the sixth and final inning when Lewisberry's Chayton Krauss smacked an opposite field single to score Braden Kolmansberger with the game winner. Kolmansberger started the rally by drawing a walk, and then moved to third on Jaden Henline's single. Henline also homered in the fourth inning to tie the score 2-2.

Cole Wagner, who had starred for Lewisberry leading up to the final, was a big part of the win as well. He connected on a first-inning home run, his fourth of the tournament, and pitched 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball before being lifted due to pitch count restrictions.

As for Texas, they scored one in the second on an error and another in the fourth on Marco Gutierrez's double.

The game was played in front of a record crowd at Howard J. Lamade Stadium. 45,716 fans filled the seats and lined the layers of hills beyond the outfield wall. The previous single-game record of 44,800 was set back in 2001.

With the win, Lewisberry became the first Pennsylvania team to win the United States Championship since Shippensburg in 1990. On Sunday, they will attempt to bring back the first World Series title since Levittown in 1960.

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Awaiting them will be the team from Japan. They advanced to the world championship game with a thrilling 1-0 victory over Mexico in seven innings earlier on Saturday.

The ABC broadcast for Sunday's final is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813