2004 Little League World Series
Statistical Leader Board

By David Graham-Caso

With 28 games of the Little League World Series completed, there have been some dominating individual performances thus far in South Williamsport in 2004. The following four statistical categories highlight some of the top individual players in Williamsport.

Analysis: Randall Grichuk has been a force at the plate throughout his Texas’ team’s offensive onslaught. As long as pitchers keep throwing to Grichuk and he keeps putting balls into play the righty will continue to dominate the leader board. Curacao’s large slugger, Carlos Pineda has also been dominating the dish up to this point of the tournament. It is because of his powerful bat that Curacao has advanced to the International Championship.

Analysis: Again, Grichuk dominates an offensive category. Though the Texas slugger has had played one more game (the Untied States semifinal against the Southeast) it is evident that Grichuk is one of the most dangerous hitters in the tournament. Girchuk’s OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) is a ridiculous 2.67 up to this point. He is the most exciting hitter in the 2004 Little League World Series. Lister, who claims that he goes up to the plate “thinking base hit, line drive, never homerun” has been making great contact with the ball and is a big reason why his Thousand Oaks team is playing in the United States Championship.

Analysis: Surprise, surprise, Grichuk is perched atop another offensive leader board. Grichuk and teammates Matt Daniels, Chance Murski, Cody Abraham, and Tyler Ford are joined on the Runs Batted In leader board by five members of the Asia Regional Champions, the Shou-Tien Little League from Chinese Taipei. Despite the Taiwan team’s early exit from the Tournament, they did score a large number of runs in their first win against Poland (18-0), which allowed various hitters in the line up to rack up RBIs.
 

Analysis: No surprise here. Constantino, Lincoln, Rhode Island’s ace struck out 24 in the two games that he pitched. The combination of a great fastball and a nasty breaking pitch resulted in Constantino fanning most of the batters he faced. Number two on the list, Owensboro Kentucky’s Cole Sturgeon had high expectations coming into the tournament. Twice in the Great Lakes Regional, Sturgeon struck out 17 of a possible 18 batters. The lefty was clocked throwing his fastball up near 77 mph. Sturgeon had control problems early in Owensboro’s pool play games, which prevented him from being even more dominant than he was in the tournament.