America's Answer to Shohei Ohtani Is a 12-Year-Old From South Dakota

[mahatmakanejeeves]

A-HED

America’s Answer to Shohei Ohtani Is a 12-Year-Old From South Dakota

Gavin Weir throws no-hitters, smashes home runs and is taking the Little League World Series by storm

By Andrew Beaton and Joshua Robinson
Updated Aug. 26, 2021 11:20 am ET

His pitching delivery has striking similarities to Randy Johnson and Chris Sale. His swing and two-way baseball heroics have been likened to Shohei Ohtani. But his father has a completely different comparison for the most electrifying player in baseball.

“Gavin is Gavin,” Ronnie Weir says.

Gavin is also 12 years old.

The breakout star of the Little League World Series, South Dakota’s Gavin Weir has already lit up the tournament with performances that have earned him side-by-side breakdowns against MLB’s biggest stars. He began by striking out 15 batters in less than six innings as part of a combined no-hitter. Two days later, he hit a towering home run that went viral immediately. Then on Wednesday, he threw another no-hitter to beat the team from Torrance, Calif., 1-0 and punch South Dakota’s ticket to the Little League World Series semifinals.

All of this is before he starts the seventh grade next month.

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[PRETZEL]

1. I watched the first game he pitched,

He struck out 15 of 17 batters, that's pretty amazing considering the pitch counts these kids are on.

And it wasn't just he threw hard, he did but not as hard as some of the other kids I saw, but it was his total command of at least 3 pitches. That's hard to do at the major leagues, and really amazing at the little league level.