They're in again!

For the second year in a row Toms River, New Jersey will play in the United States Championship game at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

With their 3-1 victory over Brownsburg, Indiana in front of 15,300 at Howard J. Lamade Stadium, they finish with a record of 3-0 in U.S. pool play. They must now wait to see who they will play in Thursday night's showdown.

The East took advantage of four walks, an error, and two costly wild pitches. All three runners that scored got on base via the walk. They scored two in the second and one in the third and then went on to hold off a late-inning rally by Indiana.

Chris Fontenelli started on the hill for the East. He went four strong innings without allowing a run. Eric Campesi came in for the fifth and got out of the Indiana rally. Going into the sixth, East coach Mike Gaynor asked his boys who wanted to pitch. Steve Bernath raised his hand and Gaynor granted him the opportunity. Bernath worked a perfect sixth.

"Chris did an unbelievable job," Gaynor said. "He had looked really good in practice and it continued in the game. He kept their hitters off-balance."

The big question for Gaynor was whether or not to use his son Casey to close out the game. "It was never an option because even if we had lost, we still would have advanced."

Fontenelli struck out eight hitters in his four innings of work. He struck out the side in the third. "It was pretty fun out there," he said. "It was just great to have the opportunity to start a game here. This has been a real thrill for me."

For the Central, they fall to 0-2 and their chances of advancing are very slim. They were in both games the whole way, but couldn't put it away. "It would be a miracle to get in," said Central manager Gary King.

--Mark Rogoff
   Special Correspondent