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Show Little League Playoff (earns defeats Dixie for State Title Dixie threatened to end the game in the bottom of the sixth when they advanced Johnson to third base after a walk. He stole second and third, but Dixie could not deliver the blow to send him home. Laub was equally as effective ef-fective on the mound. Laub was on the mound for Dixie's District; championship game over Cedar American. Against Kearns he gave up five hits, two of them to Nelson, but he had 11 strikeouts and gave up only three walks. Until the seventh Laub had only one bad inning. In the second he gave up a hit to Nelson, followed by the walks to load the bases with no outs. He then struck out the next three batters to end the inning without a score. A large contingent of fans from Kearns were on hand for the championship gamt played at the Cedar City Elks Little League park. Kearns successfully defended their state championship. Last year they defeated West Zion, the Utah District 1 champions for the right to advance to the Western Regional finals. In winning the District 2 title Kearns scored a 4-2 victory over Clearfield with Nelson again picking up the mound victory. In a battle of pitching strengths between Jack Laub of Dixie and Chris Nelson of Kearns the northern nor-thern Division winners from Kearns International league picked up the Utah Little League Championship Saturday afternoon 2-0 in an extra inning. The two clubs battled on even terms throughout the regulation six innings of play with both clubs having scoring opportunities only to have the opposing pitcher shut down the potential threats. Not until the seventh inning in-ning did a run score in the contest. Dave Bulloch of Kearns led off the top of the seventh frame with a walk. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Lambert and came on to score on a double by Craig Vargo. Vargo then came on to score a second tally for the visiting Kearns team. In the bottom of the seventh the Dixie crew, champions of Utah District 1 went down in order. For Kearns it will be their fourth trip to the Western Division finals to be held in San Bernadino and they are scheduled to open play in that 14 teams tournament that will be underway on Saturday, Aug. 12. The Utah champions will play the first game of the tournament facing the Montana champions. In winning the Utah championship the Kearns team turned in a brilliant defensive effort behind the superb pitching of Nelson. Nelson gave up only two hits in the contest and collected 12 strikeouts along the way. He gave up five walks and hit one batter. |