Max Glasser, a 12-year-old Novato Little Leaguer, needed only 63 pitches in six innings to achieve perfection Tuesday evening at Novato Little League North's Babe Silva field.
In pitching a perfect game and striking out 16 of the 18 opposing batters, Glasser mirrored the famous feat of Danny Almonte in the 2001 Little League World Series (Almonte's record would later be nullified after Little League officials discovered his real age exceeded Little League rules).
Glasser's contributions to his Reds (Majors) team were not limited to pitching, however. The seventh grader also hit a triple and a double with two RBIs, and stole a base to lead the Reds to a 7-0 victory over the rival Cubs. The two batters able to touch Glasser's elusive pitches were called out before reaching first base -- the second being the most threatening as he knocked the ball to a Reds outfielder late in the game.
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By the final inning, Glasser was 11 tosses shy of exceeding the league pitch-count limit which would have prevented him from pitching in a big game this weekend. Reds Manager Ben Franks was faced with the dilemma of saving his star pitcher for the weekend match-up or allowing him to make a run at a perfect game -- and a lifelong memory. Fortunately for Franks, Glasser efficiently resolved the quandary by using only 3 pitches on each of the final 3 batters. It's highly likely that Glasser's two unused pitches would have been strikes, also.