They were the most successful team in the 55-year history of Sweetwater Valley Little League, and even though they didn’t advance to the championship game of this year’s Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa., they can still feel the love from the surrounding community.
And pride.
The several hundred fans who gathered Tuesday evening at the Sweetwater Valley Little League complex to welcome home the 12U all-star baseball team from its month-long journey to the Little League World Series West Region tournament in San Bernardino and the Little League World Series itself in Pennsylvania wore both emotions on their sleeves.
Officially, Sweetwater Valley (19-2) reigns as the 2015 Little League World Series West Region champions. The team made its history-making trek to the hallowed Little League World Series — one of just 16 teams in the world, and just eight in the United States, to do so. The boys from Bonita finished third there among the eight U.S. squads.
“It was just unbelievable,” Sweetwater Valley manager Ward Lannom explained. “Watching it on television doesn’t do it justice.
“To sit there and go though and experience what the kids experienced, to see firsthand what it feels like to be on the field with 20,000 people in the stands, to walk through crowds with everybody wanting a picture with you, to watch the kids sign all the balls, all the autographs, and to see them just want to get away from it with other players when they had enough. But to see how Little League treats these players, it’s been a phenomenal experience, to see it not only through the eyes of my son but the players in general.”
The Sweetwater Sluggers won three games and lost two during their memorable stay in South Williamsport. It was the last loss — an eight-inning 9-7 setback to Pearland West Little League, the Texas East champions — that will be remembered most by fans.
Needing one more win to advance to the LLWS U.S. division championship game, Sweetwater Valley, representing the West Region, piled up three quick runs in the top of the first inning on a three-run home run by Walker Lannom in the nationally-televised Aug. 27 encounter.
But the Southwest Region champions, who had dropped Sweetwater Valley to the losers bracket courtesy of an 8-4 win four days earlier, responded with a grand slam home run by Zack Mack in the bottom of the inning to put the Southern California champions in a just-as-quick one-run deficit.
Sweetwater Valley battled back to take a 6-4 lead on a solo home run by Levi Mendez and a two-run home run by Jacob Baptista in the top of the third inning. But the California District 42 champions could not hold onto that lead.
Pearland West got one run back in the bottom of the fourth inning on a two-out RBI single by Mack. Marco Gutierrez led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a home run to tie the game 6-6.
The game went to extra innings, with Sweetwater Valley pushing across the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth inning on a blast to center field by Jacob Baptista to score Nate Nankil.
But the Texas team responded to the challenge once again with power of its own.
Ben Friedman, Pearland West’s starting pitcher who had fanned 10 Sweetwater Valley batters during his time on the hill, hit a leadoff home run to tie the game 7-7. Baptista, now on the mound in relief of Nankil, issued a walk to Mack and Caleb Low followed with a walk-off two-run home run to center field to win the game.
“When I got back to the dugout, I was just thinking for that inning to be over,” Nankil recalled. “We knew we had to keep on winning, and that’s what the other teams wanted to do, too.”
Other than the two losses to Texas, which out-hit the Californians 21-11 in the two games with 21 strikeouts, the California Section 7 champions devoured the competition at this year’s Little League World Series. Sweetwater Valley opened play in the tournament with a four-inning 14-2 run-rule win over Kentucky state champion Bowling Green Eastern Little League. The Sweetwater Sluggers lived up to their name by belting six home runs in the game, including five in the third inning to tie an LLWS record.
Sweetwater Valley entered the 2015 LLWS as co-favorites with Pennsylvania champion Red Land Little League but dropped from the winners bracket with the subsequent loss to Pearland West. The SoCal hard-ballers committed five errors in the game and coughed up a pair of home runs.
Had the team not played so sloppy in that game, it’s daring to think what might have happened going forward in the tournament.
“It’s hard to be perfect,” the SVLL manager admitted. “All of those teams we faced back there were good. (In the first game against Texas) we lost the game. (In the second game against Texas), they beat us. No one can hang their head about that. We gave it our all. They gave it their all. I told the kids that wins aren’t always judged by what’s on the scoreboard. I consider that game a success.”
The elder Lannom reiterated it what an “amazing journey” it was for his team.
“This team started on June 15. If you had asked me then if we thought we’d end up where we did, the dreamer in us would have said yes. But the answer would have been no, because reality sets in.
“The fun factor stayed with them the whole way. The camaraderie in the clubhouse was great. The guys are champs. They deserve this. They are still going to be playing baseball for a long time.”
Sweetwater Valley made it exciting for fans watching at home with elimination victories against New England Region champion Cranston Western Little League from Rhode Island on Aug. 24 and a rematch against Bowling Green Eastern on Aug. 25.
Sweetwater Valley clubbed three home runs and smacked 14 hits in a 10-3 win over Rhode Island and tacked on two more home runs in an 11-3 win over Kentucky.
The two combatants in the marathon Aug. 27 game combined for seven home runs, with Texas hitting four and Sweetwater Valley hitting three.
The winner of that Aug. 27 game advanced to meet Red Land in the U.S. division championship game on Aug. 29. Sweetwater Valley officially finished third in the U.S. bracket following that second loss to Pearland West.
The Texas team proved to be the surprise of this year’s LLWS, with Pearland West taking a 2-1 lead over the heavily favored Pennsylvania team in front of a single-game record 45,716 fans at Lamade Stadium.
Red Land eventually rallied to win 3-2 on a walk-off single by Chayton Krauss in the bottom of the sixth inning. Cole Wagner, likely the best U.S. player in the tournament, struck out 11 Texas batters in five-and-two-third innings on the mound while also hitting a solo home run in the first inning.
Wagner finished the tournament with 21 strikeouts in two pitching appearances. At the plate, he hit four home runs.
In the ensuing LLWS championship game on Aug. 30, the newly crowned U.S. champions broke out to a 10-2 lead on Japan’s Tokyo Kitasuna Little League but couldn’t hold it as the Japanese hammered five home runs and 22 hits in the game to post a remarkable come-from-behind 18-11 victory.
Texas defeated Mexicali’s Seguro Social Little League, 6-4, in the third-place game.
The 2015 Little League World Series went down in the record books for most home runs (87) in a 16-game tournament and highest attendance (469,946) for 32 games.
Sweetwater Valley finished at the top of the leaderboard with 15 home runs, 38 RBI and 46 runs scored.
Walker Lannom finished as the top U.S. hitter with 10 hits. He tied Japan’s Yugo Aoki for second most hits in the tournament behind leader Raul Leon of Mexico with 11.
The elder Lannom talked about putting the team’s finish in perspective.
“There were 208 players at this Little League World Series out of 2.2 million kids who play Little League worldwide,” the Sweetwater Valley manager explained. “The kids who actually make it there belong to a very elite percentage. When you put it in fractions and ratios, it’s an incredible feat what these kids accomplished.
“Our journey to Williamsport had an impact on so many people, not just the players and coaches. I’ve had dads who have come up to me and tell me that watching our run has made their kids want to play Little League again. It’s think it’s really all about keeping the dream alive.”
All the SVLL players sported smiles at Tuesday’s homecoming celebration, realizing that third place in the U.S. — third out of 7,000 teams — still stands as an exceptional accomplishment.
“It was cool,” Walker Lannom said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was great experiencing it with my family and my team. It was better than just experiencing it myself.
“Hearing the different languages was cool, (but) my most memorable memories are just playing and hitting.”
Lannom called hitting the home run to put his team up 3-0 in the losers bracket semifinal game “a great feeling.”
“I knew it helped my team out,” he said. “I knew when they hit the grand slam that it wasn’t the end of the game. It was just the first inning. When we went ahead in the eighth inning, I was pumped. I thought we could win this. But they came back and put the bat on the ball.”
Nankil, a pitcher-third baseman, termed his Little League World Series experience “unbelievable.”
“On the bus to L.A. (to catch a flight to the East Coast), I was still having a tough time realizing we were actually going to Williamsport,” he said. “It was unbelievable when we saw the fields and the crowds. In our first game, I was kind of nervous. But during the game, once we started getting hits, it went away.
“It was fun meeting the international teams. We didn’t know their language but we learned a handshake from Uganda.”
“I can’t remember anything that wasn’t memorable,” catcher Nick Maldonado offered. “Everything was fun. It’s crazy that we got third in the U.S. out of 7,000 teams. That’s just crazy!”
“It was great to go to different places and see all the different teams trying their hardest,” Mendez noted. “I thought we’d just play good baseball. I didn’t think we’d make it all the way there. When we got there, it was like a dream come true.”
He paused. “I thought that we could have reached the championship game but finishing third — that’s still pretty good.”
Outfielder Preston Fleming, whose father John played baseball and football at Bonita Vista High School and spent five years in the Arizona Diamondbacks Major League Baseball organization, admitted he was nervous the first time he stepped onto the field at the LLWS “because the fields were so nice and the big crowds.”
“But I was excited at the same time,” the younger Fleming quickly piped up.
Dante Schmid, who took a no-hitter into the final inning in the team’s LLWS opener against Kentucky on Aug. 21, called the trip to South Williamsport “a great experience.”
“It was a dream come true being there,” said Schmid, who left his mark on the 2015 LLWS by hitting three home runs and picking up two pitching wins. “We lost. It wasn’t the result we expected but we still had a great time. It was great having all our fans support us.”
While the stakes become higher as teams advance deeper into the tournament, the ultimate enjoyment of participating in the Little League World Series is the fun element — of taping TV commercials while wearing zany costumes, receiving free gear, meeting other kids from around the world … and sliding down the famous hill in the stadium complex.
The Sweetwater Valley team did the latter on the final day of the tournament.
“Right after the championship game, it started pouring rain,” Walker Lannom related. “We went out to the hill and slid down it without cardboard boxes. We went across the cement and it didn’t hurt because everything was wet.”
Boys will be boys — you can only be 12 or 13 once. And play in the LLWS.
LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES
Championship Game
Japan 18, Pennsylvania 11
Third-Place Game
Texas 6, Mexico 4
U.S. Championship Game
Pennsylvania 3, Texas 2
International Championship Game
Japan 1, Mexico 0
U.S. Division Standings
1. Red Land, Lewisberry, Pa.
2. Pearland West, Pearland, Texas
3. Sweetwater Valley, Bonita
4. Bowling Green Eastern, Ky.
Sweetwater Valley 14, Kentucky 2
SVLL home runs: Antonio Andrade, Walker Lannom, Nick Maldonado (grand slam), Levi Mendez, Nate Nankil, Dante Schmid
RBI: Maldonado 4, Mendez 3, Schmid 3, Lannom 2, Andrade 1, Nankil 1
Winning pitcher: Dante Schmid, 8 strikeouts, 2 hits
Texas 8, Sweetwater Valley 4
SVLL home runs: Dante Schmid
RBI: Schmidt 3, Levi Mendez 1
Losing pitcher: Antonio Andrade, 2 strikeouts, 5 hits
Sweetwater Valley 10, Rhode Island 3
SVLL home runs: Jacob Baptista, Walker Lannom, Dante Schmid
RBI: Baptista 4, Lannom 3, Schmid 1, Nate Nankil 1
Winning pitcher: Levi Mendez 11 strikeouts, 4 hits
Sweetwater Valley 11, Kentucky 3
SVLL home runs: Antonio Andrade, Levi Mendez
RBI: Mendez 2, Andrade 1, Walker Lannom 1
Winning pitcher: Dante Schmid 4 strikeouts, 3 hits
Texas 9, Sweetwater Valley 7 (8 innings)
SVLL home runs: Jacob Baptista, Walker Lannom, Levi Mendez
RBI: Baptista 3, Lannom 3, Mendez 1
Losing pitcher: Baptista 6 strikeouts, 5 walks, 3 hits
SWEETWATER VALLEY INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
Hitting: Walker Lannom .588, Levi Mendez .412, Mark Cervantes .400, Nate Nankil .389, Dante Schmid .333, Jacob Bautista .312, Antonio Andrade .312, Nick Maldonado .222, Ariel Armas .200, Cameron Barbabosa .200, Isaac Artalejo .000, Preston Fleming .000
Home runs: Walker Lannom 3, Levi Mendez 3, Dante Schmid 3, Jacob Bautista 2, Antonio Andrade 2, Nate Nankil 1, Nick Maldonado 1
RBI: Walker Lannom 9, Levi Mendez 7, Dante Scmid 7, Jacob Bautista 7, Nick Maldonado 4, Nate Nankil 2, Antonio Andrade 2
Runs scored: Nate Nankil 10, Walker Lannom 8, Antonio Andrade 8, Levi Mendez 6, Jacob Bautista 5, Dante Schmid 3, Isaac Artalejo 2, Cameron Barbabosa 2, Nick Maldonado 1, Mark Cervantes 1
Strikeouts (pitching): Levi Mendez 13, Dante Schmid 12, Nate Nankil 10, Jacob Bautista 6, Walker Lannom 2, Antonio Andrade 2
