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Best team in the Western United States, and the second best in the entire United States.
Those are pretty lofty titles to throw around, but it is exactly what the Livermore Little League Intermediate All-Stars can carry around with them following last week.
Playing in the Little League Intermediate World Series in Livermore, the 12-player team of mostly rising eighth graders, advanced to the U.S. Championship game, falling 3-1 to the Southwest representatives from Louisiana last Saturday (Aug. 3).
Kenner, La. went on to win the whole World Series, beating Seoul, South Korea 8-7 in the final on Sunday at Max Baer Park.
Not too bad for the local side.
“I don’t think we could have imagined that,” Livermore manager John Lee said of the team making it all the way to the U.S. Championship game. “We really went out there and proved ourselves. I am so happy they kids got to that point and had a chance to experience it.”
It didn’t start out smoothly, as Livermore fell 4-2 to Kenner in their first game, dropping into the losers’ bracket where it becomes a big chore to advance deep into the tournament.
But the Livermore boys rallied in a big way.
Next up was a team from Delaware, representing the East.
“It didn’t look good in that one,” said Lee, as his team fell behind 3-0.
Livermore battled back and tied it 3-3, forcing extra innings. They fell behind again, this time 5-3 in the ninth, eventually getting three in the bottom half of the inning, winning the game on a bases-loaded walk.
“We knew we could come back as we have been down that road before,” Lee said as the team had shown resilience throughout the summer.
After that it was a 5-4 win over a team from Georgia representing the Southeast, followed by a 12-5 win over a team from San Diego that represented the West.
That left the team in the U.S. Championship game, once again Livermore faced the boys from Louisiana.
Livermore led 1-0 in the sixth inning before Kenner rallied to take a 3-1 lead.
“Five outs away,” Lee said. “We still felt we would win the game. We were only down 3-1 and we had two at-bats left as we were the home team. But when it doesn’t go through, it’s tough to handle.”
Lee and his staff spent time after the game talking with the team about the amazing accomplishment of their run this summer. It may take some time, but these 12 kids need to walk tall.
“It will be interesting to see (how they handle it), but I think they will take a lot of pride moving forward,” Lee said. “This shows them what they are capable of. It’s a launching point going forward as to that they are capable of great things.”
The roster of the Livermore team: Lucas Boosahda, Cody Truitt, Richie Goins, Brady Kohn, Josh Ragan, Braiden Weber, Will Backers, Rhett Bystrom, Johnny Lee, Jack Wilhite, Grant Perotti and Gant Leathers. Joining Lee on the coaching staff were Dave Perotti and John Wilhite.
Fall sports are about to roll
It’s time for the 2024 East Bay Athletic League fall season to fully be underway, which also means it’s time to turn in your results to us each week.
We get rolling on the new school year with football, girls’ volleyball, water polo, girls’ tennis, cross-country, girls’ tennis, girls’ golf and flag football.
I want to make sure to get as many results as possible, and that’s where you come in! The easiest thing is to have a parent volunteer collect the information each week and in turn send it to me.
The deadline each week is noon on Sundays — you can turn information in earlier — and you can send it to acesmag@aol.com.
Next week I will put out the information I need for each sport, as it’s simple and can be done in 10 minutes a week. Help your coach out and make sure the kids get recognized for all their hard work.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
