Grand slam powers Nolensville Little League to U.S. Championship Game

Nolensville Little League is headed to the U.S. Championship Game.

Nolensville got a Josiah Porter grand slam in the first inning and led the rest of the way en route to a 7-1 win over Pearland (Texas) in the Little League World Series on Thursday in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Drew Chadwick made Porter's grand slam hold up with a complete game performance on the mound, and Nolensville now knows it'll be playing games for trophies this weekend.

First inning again tells the story

Nolensville fell behind in the first inning after Texas strung together a pair of hits in their first at-bats for a 1-0 lead.

Nolensville started quickly at the plate. After a strikeout, Nolensville got singles from Jack Rhodes, Bo Daniel and Wright Martin. After another strikeout, Porter stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. He cranked a 2-1 pitch over the centerfield fence for a game-changing grand slam to conclude another eventful first inning.

It's a trend for Nolensville, which led 4-0 in the win over Utah on Friday and trailed 5-0 to Hawaii on Wednesday in the team's lone loss of the tournament.

Nolensville added a run in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth inning, which was plenty for Chadwick to work with on the mound.

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Drew Chadwick settles in on the mound

Chadwick settled in after the rocky start, limiting the first inning damage to one run and conceding just four runners over the next five innings.

His final line Thursday: Six innings, six hits, one run allowed, no walks and six strikeouts on 85 pitches.

And despite slipping on the base paths between first and second base in the fifth inning during a pitch to the plate after he singled, Chadwick's smart baserunning allowed Wright Martin to score before Chadwick became the third out of the inning.

Chadwick has allowed two runs in 8 ⅔ innings over two starts in the Little League World Series and has added three RBIs and three runs scored at the plate.

Up next

Nolensville advances to the U.S. Championship Game against Honolulu (Hawaii) on Saturday (2:30 p.m. CT, ABC). Honolulu is 4-0 in the tournament and won 13-0 over Nolensville on Wednesday.

"I don't know if (Hawaii) are beatable or not," Nolensville coach Randy Huth said to ESPN after the game. "If somebody is going to beat them, why not us?"

The winner of that game advances to LLWS Final against either Curacao or Chinese Taipei.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nolensville Little League wins over Texas, in LLWS United States Final