If at first you don't succeed ...

Well, if you're the the power team from Pearland that in many ways has been the toast of the Little League World Series so far, you get another chance. Pearland dropped its first game in the World Series Wednesday night, falling to Auburn, Washington 7-4 in a game it once led 4-1, when a win would have pushed Beau Orlando and company into the U.S. Championship Game.

The Pearland team that rolled its first two opponents in the Williamsport, Pa. by a combined 24-9 score, struck out 16 times this night. But it's hardly over for the team that's carrying the Texas flag.

Pearland gets a rematch with Washington at 3 Thursday afternoon and Isaiah Hatch, the Washington pitcher who overpowered the Texas team of power, cannot pitch again.

ESPN commentator Bobby Valentine wasn't about to jump off Pearland's cowboy-hat bangwagon either.

"Pearland, Texas is a hotbed for baseball," Valentine said on the air. On this night, a lot of Pearland's big bats uncharacteristically found nothing but air.

The end result is that Pearland must play an extra game in Williamsport to get to the U.S. Championship. That's hardly the worst thing in the world in the land where 11- and 12-year-old boys are besieged for autographs and give TV interviews.

Still for much of the night, the winner-move-on-loser-goes-home Thursday game didn't seem like it would be necessary.

With two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Pearland led 4-1 and a berth in the U.S. Championship Game seemed a mere formality. Only seven outs away.

But Washington rallied, scoring three runs on one wild play that included a great attempted, diving catch in the outfield from Pearland. Still, the runs scored. Suddenly, Pearland's players started breaking out the double rally caps in the dugout. Washington led 5-4 and would soon stretch it to 7-4 in the next inning.

It was a game of great turnaround.

Pearland pinch runner extraordinaire Chris Leger got the Texas team off to a 1-0 first-inning lead on the strength of his daring. Leger took off for third on a wild pitch that wasn't that wild, slide in safely in a somewhat controversial call and then raced around to score on another close play at the plate when the third baseman bobbled the ball.

Washington's manager challenged the call at third, bringing about an instant replay review (yes, in Little League). The replay was ruled "inconclusive" and Leger's run stood.

If Leger was a blackjack player, he'd be hitting on 18. In the ESPN broadcast booth, former Mets manager Bobby Valentine marveled at Leger's guts.

Pearland scored three more in the third as Beau Orlando belted a two-run home run off of Hatch, Washington's best player, and Blake Toler (the Pearland player who took his first plane ride ever to get to Williamsport) doubled.

Even on the bad nights in Little League, there are great highlights for the losing team too.