WESTFIELD, IN — The game between Iowa and Kansas was close until the third inning Thursday. Then it turned into an all-out shellacking that looked more akin to batting practice than an actual game. The Grandview Little Leaguers, based out of Des Moines (2-1), boat raced the J.L. Hutchinson Baseball Little League team, based out of Pittsburg (1-2), 14-0 and will move on to play Minnesota in the the Little League Baseball Midwest Regional semi-final. That game is scheduled for Friday.

Iowa jumped out to an early lead plating a run in the first inning. The team then piled on four more runs in the third inning to push the lead to five runs. In the fifth inning, the boys from Des Moines put up a crooked number: a whopping nine runs to seal the games' fate. The offense, lead by Blake Larson, Brody Watson, Maddox O'Conner and Connor Duong, finished with 11 hits. Watson and Larson both homered in the game, with Larson leading the team with five RBIs on the day. O'Conner lead the team with four runs scored and pitched an absolute gem on the mound, hurling five innings of three-run, shut-out ball. He stuck out six and walked just one batter.

Kansas was unable to get anything going all day. The top three batters in the lineup combined for zero hits and the team as a whole was only able to get three. Starting pitcher Jackson Turnbull turned in two solid innings, giving up one unearned run on one hit. He struck out three batters, to boot. But trouble followed for Pittsburg's relief pitchers. John Potusek, Beau Pasteur and Conner VanBecelaere gave up 13 runs — 12 earned — in three innings of relief, with Pasteur giving up a pair of home runs.