Prather dominates as Southwest wins 4-1 Wed. at Little League World Series

The Southwest Region champs moved closer to the Little League World Series’ U.S. Final in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, with a 4-1 victory against the Mid-Atlantic Regional champs Wednesday in an elimination contest.
Egan Prather, who has family in the Morgan City area, was a big reason why.
Prather surrendered one hit, one walk and fanned 10 in 5.1 innings on the mound for the Eastbank Little League in the ESPN-televised contest.
“I was locked in as soon as I struck out that first guy,” Prather told nola.com “Toward the middle innings, I started to get a little tired, but I knew I had to just keep going. It’s amazing, because I’ve never pitched in front of that many people.”
Prather earned the win, while William Andrade pitched 0.2 innings and surrendered an unearned run on one hit.
“He did exactly what Egan does,” Eastbank manager Scott Frazier told nola.com. “He keeps the ball down, he has a good change-up and can spot his pitches. And he’s going to compete and battle.”
Prather, the grandson of Morgan City residents Donald and Karen Loupe, threw 66 pitches, 45 for strikes.
“He was phenomenal,” Mid-Atlantic manager Jairo Labrador told nola.com of Prather. “He had command of both of his pitches. We were late on his fastball to start. He had us guessing, and that’s the worst thing for a batter when you’re guessing out there. They came and took advantage of our mistakes, and that’s what good teams do. That’s a good baseball team over there, and I’m proud to go out like that.”
With Wednesday’s win against Elizabeth, New Jersey-based Elmora Youth Little League, the Southwest is now one game shy of Saturday’s Little League Baseball U.S. Final.
To advance to the U.S. Final, though, the Southwest will have to defeat the Southeast (South Riding, Virginia-based Loudoun South Little League) in an elimination game Thursday at 6 p.m. on ESPN. The Southeast Region champs fell to the elimination bracket after falling to the West Region champs (Wailuku, Hawaii-based Central East Maui Little League) 12-9 Wednesday evening. With the win, the West advances to the U.S. Final.
In the Southwest’s win Wednesday, the squad scored a run in the first and three in the third for a 4-0 lead.
Mid-Atlantic scored its lone run in the top of the sixth.
The two teams combined for just five hits (Mid-Atlantic, two and Southwest, three).
Mid-Atlantic committed three errors, walked one Southwest batter and hit three batters from the Louisiana-based team.
The Southwest committed an error and walked one batter.
Reece Roussel led Eastbank at the plate with a 2-for-3 performance with a stolen base, while Prather was 1-for-1.
J.R. Rosado led Mid-Atlantic at the plate and on the mound. He finished 2-for-3 with a triple and an RBI on offense.
On the mound, he threw all five innings and surrendered four runs (none earned) on three hits with one walk, three hit batters and seven strikeouts.