History belonged to Georgia on Sunday afternoon.
Dalton Carriker lined a game-winning homer over the right-field wall in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift Warner Robins, Ga., to a 3-2 victory over Japan in the championship game of the Little League World Series at Lamade Stadium.
The victory delivered back-to-back titles to Warner Robins' home state and proved that the third time's also a charm for Georgia. They gave the U.S. a third straight series title and Georgia a third championship in just the state's third World Series appearance. Columbus won it all last year while East Marietta did so in 1983.
It took just one swing off Japan pitcher Junsho Kiuchi to end the longest title game in nearly 30 years and touch off a raucous celebration on both the field and in the stands as the crowd roared, "USA! USA! USA!"
Georgia was in this position because of tremendous pitching from Keaton Allen and Kendall Scott, who were terrific over 7 2/3 innings, holding Japan's potent offense to just five hits. Japan scored single runs in each of the first two innings, but was silenced from then on.
Meanwhile, Warner Robins quickly erased the early deficit with Allen's two-out, two-run double over the center fielder's head to tie the game in the second.
The victory must have taken on significance because, as against Texas the day before in the U.S. title game, few gave Georgia a chance Sunday. Lubbock, Texas, manager Ed Thorne, for instance, said Saturday "Japan will win that ballgame" and said Sunday he "wouldn't be surprised if it was by a large score."
Ultimately, the prediction proved wrong on both counts.