# Little League World Series



## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

The Little League World Series is starting the second week in Williamsport, Pennsylvania which is about an hour's drive north of where I live.

There is a team from Holidaysburg, PA in the tournament this year, so I'm following our Pennsylvania boys. They just beat a team from New York 7-1 after a rain delay to survive and advance. 

Today, though, Japan and Nicaragua played an 11 inning classic. Nicaragua was down 3 runs in the last inning, and they tied them up and sent it to extra frames. Then in the 8th (little League games are 6 innings, so this was the second extra frame) Japan went up 2 runs in the top of the 8th, then Nicaragua battled back to keep the game going on to the 9th. Then in the 11th inning, Japan went up by a run and then Nicaragua scored twice to walk it off and win the game.

The thing about the Nicaragua team that sort of got me on their side was that yesterday during a rain delay, the TV coverage interviewed the ONLY parent from Nicaragua that could make the trip to Williamsport. I thought that was pretty special. Its expensive to travel, and this team from Nicaragua is the first team from thieir country to make to Williamsport since the 1970s. So even after making history back home, they had to come here with almost no support. Compare that to our boys from Holidaysburg. First, Holidaysburg is only 120 miles from Williamsport. Its a small town and I'm sure if you were to go there this afternoon, it would be a ghost town. That's what always happens when a Pennsylvania team from a small town makes it to Williamsport. They just close everything down and the last one to head for Williamsport turns off the lights. So Nicaragua is my new rooting interest on the International side of the bracket.

In 2015 our local boys from right here in Lewisberry made it to Williamsport and won the US championship and played Japan for all the money. We lost, but when our team got back to Lewisberry, the whole town was lining the road to welcome the boys home. I remember trying to get one of the T-shirts they had made up and they always were sold out by the time I got off work. Every single day the local grocery store got a fresh box of shirts, and by 5pm when I got there they were sold out. I had to settle for a souvenir license plate and a team picture. That day our boys won the US Championship there at Williamsport was probably the biggest day in our little town since Governor Pinchot paved the roads out here.

So do any of you follow the little league baseball world series, or is this just a Pennsylvania thing? 

did any of you ever play on a team that went to Williamsport?


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