Paseo Verde Little League advances to regional final with win over Utah

Utah was the talk of the Little League Mountain Region Tournament when action opened on Saturday.

Paseo Verde’s players must not have been listening.

The Nevada representatives kept it close throughout, scoring the eventual game-winner on a two-out wild pitch in the top of the seventh inning Tuesday to beat Utah 4-3 in the winners bracket semifinal game at San Bernardino, California.

Paseo Verde (2-0) advances to Friday’s 2 p.m. championship game, while Utah (2-1) dropped to the losers bracket and will play Montana (1-1) Thursday for the other spot in the final. The winner advances to the Little League World Series, to be held Aug. 19-30 at South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It would be the fourth consecutive season Nevada has earned a berth.

“I knew Utah was a strong team,” Paseo Verde coach Corey Edwards said. “They do a lot of things well. But we’re more concerned about what we have and what we’re doing.”

Logan Edwards was the hero for the Nevada team, driving in a first-inning run with a groundout, pitching the final two scoreless innings, and striking out Utah’s DG Nelson with the bases loaded to end the game.

“As a coach, you hope they believe in themselves as much as you do,” Corey Edwards said of his son. “It’s not easy to be put in that situation, so I loved how he competed.”

Utah traded runs with Nevada throughout and led 3-2 after four innings. Though starter Dax Johnson did not allow an earned run, the team from Alpine, Utah did not fare as well with a platoon of three relievers that debuted in the fourth inning.

Payton Hinsen doubled in the fourth and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Owen Guzman to tie the score at 3, setting up the winning run in the seventh when Hinsen scored from third base on a wild pitch by Utah’s Ryder Conder.

Hinsen went 2-for-3 with a double to lead Paseo Verde, and leadoff hitter Guzman also had a double. The Nevada team was outhit 5-4.

A win Friday would send Paseo Verde back to the LLWS for the second time in three years. The team went 2-2 in the 2024 tournament. Summerlin South won the American championship last year.