By Thomas Grant Jr.
A summer in which Irmo Little League has sent three teams to respective World Series in baseball and softball has a fourth one competing Thursday.
The Majors are at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn., for the first time in program history. It earned the trip following a stunning 5-4 comeback win over defending champion Lake Mary (Florida) to claim the Southeast Region title.
A 12-player roster of All-Stars zoned for Chapin, Dutch Fork, River Bluff and Gray Collegiate high schools and Ben Lippen, Irmo is the fourth overall representative from South Carolina. Previous Little League Baseball World Series participants were from North Charleston (1949), Clinton (1950), and Taylors (2015).
It faces New England Region champion Braintree American out of Massachusetts at 3 p.m. Thursday on ESPN.
“We’ve got a really, really good group of players,” head coach Dave Bogan said in a telephone interview. “Excellent leadership for 12-year-olds. They do a nice job of leading themselves. They’re still 12. We have to remind them a bit. But just a really, really good group of young men. Not just talented baseball players, but good people.”
The comeback win over Lake Murray sparked national attention on social media. It stemmed from a mound meeting Bogan had with the infield in the Top 6th with Lake Mary looking to increase its lead.
Bogan’s 50-second speech would become a viral moment, attracting as many as 486,000 views on a Facebook page:
“It is time to grow up. We’ve got four umpires that aren’t waving their hands. You’ve got to finish the play. You’ve got to finish the play. You can’t just stop. Okay. You can’t just stop. You got me? You guys all got me? You need better body language. Guys, we’re not out of this! We need one out and let’s get some runs! C’mon boys. Hammer the strike zone, okay, and then let’s (have) Skittles after the game.”
Westbrooks escaped trouble, setting the stage for the dramatic rally in the Bottom 6th. Trailing 4-0 with two outs, Irmo loaded the bases. Back-to-back RBI walks by Preston Ware and hitting star Joe Giulietti, who was intentionally walked, cut the deficit to 4-2.
The walks were issued by reliever Levi Rodriguez. He replaced starter Jacob Brown, who had held Irmo to three hits and struck out seven in five innings, but was forced out of the game due to a high pitch count.
Down to a final strike, Westbrooks belted a bases-clearing double over the leftfielder to the wall to win the game. It also earned him a victory on the mound and helped avenged Irmo’s lone loss in 12 post-season games.
Afterwards, Westbrooks credited Bogan’s “Grow Up” speech as a turning point.
“It really helped us a lot because we calmed down a lot and played a lot better,” he said.
(Photo by Irmo Little League)
