The Pool A Champion (Southwest) from Lake Charles, La. may have lost

their last pool game to Hagerstown, Md. (Mid-Atlantic) which forced a

three-way tie, but they managed came out on top based on the

tie-breaker rule and advanced to the U.S. Semifinal game. Lake Charles

defeated the Southeast champion, Tampa, Fl., 6-1 last night earning a

berth in Saturday's United States Championship. Going 5 2/3 innings,

Louisiana's Kennon Fontenot didn't seem to be as cool and collected as

he did in his last outing. But he still got the job done. "From what I

saw tonight, he gets ahead with the fastball and then gets you with the

curveball," Florida manager Joe McGuire said. "I was trying to get my

batters to step up in the box, but they would't listen."

Fontenot gave up two walks and two wild pitches in the first three

innings. The only run that Florida was able to put on the board was on

one of those past balls with a runner on third base. But after that run

scored and a talk with his coach, Fontenot seemed to settle in. He took

down the next five batters and this gave the rest of his team a chance

to battle back and battle back they did. With 3 runs scored in the

second, 1 in the third and another 2 in the fourth, they put the game

out of reach of Washington. Fontenot recorded 11 strikeouts, bringing

his total to 23 in 11 2/3 innings at the Little League Baseball World

Series.

When Kennon pitches, I was telling coach Joe (McGuire), he's

effectively wild sometimes," Southwest manager Charlie Phillips said.

"He does give me a few gray hairs every time he pitches."

Louisiana will take on Waipahu, Hawaii in the U.S. final. Games will

air live from Lamade Stadium on ABC, with the International title game

beginning at 12:30 p.m. and the U.S. title game at 3:30 p.m. and this

marks the first time since the Series expanded to 16 teams in 2001 that

all four pool champions advanced to the final weekend.

BOX SCORE

Tampa, Fl. 001 000 - 1 2 1

Lake Charles, La. 031 20x - 6 6 1

W - Kennon Fontenot. - Michael McGuire. S -Jordan Bryce. 2B - Beau Jordan (SW). HR - Jordan Bryce (SW).