By Ed Muniz-Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
Back in 1939, oil company clerk Carl E. Stotz could have imagine what his new baseball program would grow into.
Hosting the first Little League World Series in 1947, Stotz held it at Memorial Park in Williamsport Pennsylvania. All teams competing except one, were from Pennsylvania.
At that time, Little League existed only in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with the Maynard Midgets from the Williamsport area, winning the first Little League Championship.
Within a few years, Little Leagues were participating in all 48 states.
1950 saw expansion to outside the US when Canada, Panama and Hawaii began Little Leagues.
Today, seventy-five years later, Little League has expanded to over 6500 affiliates worldwide with International and US Championships culminating in the annual Little League World Series Championship in Williamsport.
Williamsport has events scheduled for its Platinum Jubilee Celebration to commemorate Little League 75th year.
The process to get to Williamsport is long involving several levels which include District, Sections, State, Regional Championships and finally Williamsport, with a chance at a World Title. Some states have a longer process and some shorter, all dependent on the number of programs within that region.
If you get through the process and reach Williamsport, you may have already played 30 games.
Little League has found great success since its inception and this year’s tournament has expanded to 20 teams (10 national and 10 international) from the previous 16 of last year.
At the Little League Central Region complex, two regional were held simultaneously. In Great Lakes Regional play, London Kentucky’s North Laurel All Stars faced an elimination game against Hamilton Ohio. The winner would advance to the Great Lakes Regional Championship and one step closer to reaching the coveted spot in Williamsport.
Pitching was key in this match-up. One run was the only score of the game and that came on a wild pitch, giving Kentucky a 1-0 lead, they carried from the third inning to its conclusion.
“Our biggest strong point is always our pitching”, said Kentucky manager Jason Parman. “I always tell people we have the equivalent of the pitching staff of the 90’s Atlanta Braves.”
“We have kids that can throw junk and kids that can throw heat and a little bit in between that can locate pitches; we just have a real strong pitching staff.”
Pitching did excel for both teams as they dominated for the most part the batting lineups for each.
On the mound for North Laurel was Kip Allen. His six-inning performance allowed Ohio just 3 hits while tallying 8 strikeouts including the last two to end the game.
“My plan was to work on the outside corners and set up my breaking pitches,” said Allen. “I thought I did pretty good but could have worked more on my breaking balls but I’m still happy how it turned out. There was a lot of pressure. I felt it because I want to take the team to the Championship, so yeah, I felt the pressure to do well. I wanted to win so bad for the team.”
Allen also added that his defense behind him was awesome and credited the fielding a lot for the win.
Opposing pitcher Maddox Jones of Hamilton was nearly as impressive as he too, limited Kentucky to five hits while gaining five strikeouts. However, a walk in the third inning would be the difference in the game.
Neither team did much during the first couple of innings. With just two hits between them, a single by Matthew Powenski for and a double by Maddox Jones for Ohio.
The third inning would turn out to be costly for Ohio. A walk issued to Tate Marcum after one out, later turned out to be the winning run.
After the walk, Kip Allen singled. Kentucky now had a runner in scoring position. A groundout to first advanced Kip Allen and Marcum to second and third. With two outs and two strikes on Powenski, a wild pitch by Jones gave Kentucky their lone run when Marcum stole home.
Hamilton couldn’t get much traction on Allen’s pitches through the first four innings, but leading off the fifth inning with two singles had the making of a scoring possibility. After CJ Froelich singled and was followed by another base-hit to right by Cash Brown, Froelich was waved to third by his coach but a rifle-throw from Jaxon Asher, snuff him out at third base.
“As soon as it hit my glove, I looked up and saw the third base coach waving him to come to third,” said Asher. “I said to myself “I’m gonna gun this dude” and then I did it. I like playing right field, I have a strong arm. Today I was off a little bit batting, I couldn’t get my timing down so I gotta work on that because I’m a contact hitter.”
What could have been runners at first and second with no outs with a great opportunity to tie or gain the lead for Ohio, was not to be.
Allen would end the game catching the next two batters looking on third strikes and earned Kentucky a rematch with Indiana, the winner advancing to Williamsport.
Others contributing to the Kentucky win include Cooper Parman, Ethan Anderson, Nate Miller, Jason Senters, Marshal Mastin, Kyran Barnes and Sam Allen.
Other Hamilton players displaying great effort include Sammy Platt, Jaxson Bohlen, Brady Karwisch, Aiden Justice, Blake Sams, Nate Lineback, Asher Roy, Timmie Saurber, Carter Jackson, Brody Jefferies, and Cole Vowell
“Kudos to Hamilton, they played us well the first game and again today,” said Coach Parman.
“Throughout the beginning of this tournament from our district through our state and now here, we have not had an easy game. Our kids have worked so hard at the game, I’m just so proud of all the effort and commitment that each one of these boys exhibited throughout.”
“This group has played together since they were 7, they’ve come so far since they were youngsters. Yeah, I’m the coach, but they don’t need much coaching.”
Coach Parman also credited Dusty Allen who started a travel program that these players learned the game and gathered more experience.
With the win, North Laural advanced to the Great Lakes Regional Championship against Hagerstown Indiana on August 11.
