Davenport Northwest beat California 1-0 at the Little League World Series on Friday, August 21, and did not give up a hit. Cooper Thissen struck out 15 over 5 1/3 innings before he ran into the 85-pitch daily limit. Anthony Johnson Jr. came in with runners on the corners and struck out the last two batters he faced. Seventeen of the eighteen outs Iowa recorded were strikeouts.
It is the first World Series win in Davenport Northwest history. The league's only other trip to Williamsport was 2005, and that team went 0-3. No team from Iowa has ever won the Little League World Series.
I have been on the wrong end of one of these. I played in the 2012 Little League World Series for New Castle, Indiana, the Great Lakes Region champion, and Will Lucas of Fairfield, Connecticut, no-hit us 4-0 with 13 strikeouts. I'm glad the Hawkeyes didn't end up on the wrong side of history like we did, because getting carved up on national TV is a long walk back to the dugout.
Cooper Thissen struck out 15 and ran out of pitches
Thissen, a 5-foot-8 left-hander wearing number 15, finished at 5 1/3 innings, no hits, no runs, four walks and 15 strikeouts on 90 pitches, 59 of them strikes. He struck out the side in the first on 10 pitches. He had 11 through four innings and 14 after striking out the side again in the fifth.
He touched 74 mph in the first inning. Little League pitchers throw from 46 feet instead of 60 feet 6 inches, so a batter gets roughly the reaction time of a 96 mph fastball in the majors.
Fifteen strikeouts is a Little League World Series record for a Midwest Region pitcher and the second-highest total in the tournament since 2013. He had already thrown a no-hitter in the Iowa state championship earlier this summer. His father, Greg Thissen, won an Iowa high school state title at Assumption in July.
The sixth inning almost took it away
Thissen started the sixth at 74 pitches with the no-hitter intact, and then the game got away from him without a ball leaving the infield.
Leadoff walk, putting him at 80 pitches.
Strikeout number 15, at 83 pitches.
A wild pitch moved the runner to second.
Another walk, then a passed ball, and California had runners on the corners with one out. He crossed the 85-pitch limit during that at-bat and was allowed to finish the batter, which took him to 90.
The crowd stood up and started chanting "Coop" while he walked to first base. He stayed in the game at first. He just could not pitch anymore.
Anthony Johnson Jr. finished it with the bases loaded
Johnson, another left-hander, inherited runners on first and third with one out and a one-run lead. He walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. Then he struck out the next two, the last one looking on a full count.
His line: two-thirds of an inning, no hits, no runs, one walk, two strikeouts, 17 pitches, eight strikes.
Manager Mark Erwin on Johnson afterward: "AJ's a quiet kid, but he's a cold killer if you get him there."
ESPN: the entire sixth inning, from the leadoff walk to the last strikeout
The only run came on the first swing of the game
Thissen led off the bottom of the first with a solo home run to center field off Noah Kirk. It was a low pitch and he stayed on it. That was the entire offense.
ESPN: Cooper Thissen strikes out the side and homers in the first inning
Iowa's other hit was a single by Kannon Kane. Caleb Erwin and Crue Neff drew walks. California put exactly one ball in play all afternoon, a ground ball to shortstop Xavier Ludtke.
California pitched well enough to win almost any other day
Noah Kirk went 4 2/3 innings for Sweetwater Valley Little League out of Bonita, California, giving up two hits with 13 strikeouts and two walks. He hit his own 85-pitch limit and moved to shortstop. Leo Gonzales struck out the last Iowa batter in the fifth.
Thissen and Kirk combined for 28 strikeouts in a six-inning game. California had scored 33 runs across three West Regional games to get to Williamsport and did not score here.
West manager Steve Winnick called it "the best of this season. Best of I might have ever seen by two 12-year-olds."
Why this one is historically loud
These were the 66th and 67th no-hitters in Little League World Series history. Curacao no-hit Japan 6-0 the same afternoon.
It is the first no-hitter by a United States team at the World Series since Honolulu in 2022, which went five innings.
Davenport Northwest is the first Iowa team in Williamsport since 2022, when Davenport Southeast represented the Midwest and went 2-2.
ESPN's recap clip passed 2.3 million views within hours.
Thissen, afterward: "This game, I knew we had to be ourselves, know our boundaries and just play together."
The roster
Davenport Northwest Little League, Davenport, Iowa. Manager Mark Erwin, coaches Anthony Johnson Sr. and Alan Rasso.
1 Jaxon Rasso, OF/2B/3B
2 Logan Chantos, 3B/P
3 LySanias Broyles III, OF/2B
4 Tate Devaney, OF/2B
5 Crue Neff, 2B/C/OF
6 Paxton Smith, OF
7 Kannon Kane, P/SS/C/2B
8 Liam Rasso, C/OF/P/1B
14 Xavier Ludtke, SS
15 Cooper Thissen, P/C/SS/CF
19 Caleb Erwin, CF/P/3B
22 Anthony Johnson Jr., P/1B/OF
They got to Williamsport 4-0 at the Midwest Region, including a 7-6 extra-innings win over Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, in the regional final, which ended on a wild pitch that scored Johnson Jr. Thissen struck out 13 in 4 2/3 innings of that game and 27 in 9 2/3 innings across the whole Midwest tournament. The full team page is on Little League's Midwest Region site.
What is next
Davenport Northwest is in the winner's bracket and plays Sunday, August 23 at 1 p.m. Eastern, against the winner of Friday night's Pennsylvania game between West Chester and Bayonne, New Jersey. California drops into an elimination game Saturday against Phenix City, Alabama.
The Great Lakes note for anyone tracking the rest of the region: Hamilton West Side of Ohio lost 6-5 on Friday on a two-out walk-off single by Brooks McFarland of Henderson, Nevada, scoring Owen Guzman. They are in the losers' bracket.
Watch the game
ESPN: full game highlights, California vs Iowa
Little League has posted its own official recap of California vs Iowa as well.
If you want more on baseball in this state, we wrote about the Field of Dreams site in Dyersville and the Iowans who went on to the biggest stages in sports.
We will cover Sunday's game. Sign up for the Get Iowa newsletter to get it.
