Bradley Smith had two doubles and three RBIs, Logan Douglas struck out six in five innings of relief to lift Petaluma, Calif., past Aguadulce, Panama, 12-4 Sunday in the Little League World Series third-place game.
Douglas added two hits for a California team that rebounded nicely after losing a 24-16 thriller to Tennessee in the U.S. championship game.
A day after scoring 10 runs in the sixth to rally from a 15-5 deficit, California broke out the bats early against Panama, leading 8-2 after two innings. Smith had RBI doubles in each inning.
Edwin Nieto went 2 for 4 with two runs to pace Panama.
With friends and family saluting them after the game, the California kids emerged from the dugout to line up and applaud their fans back.
