The McLean Little League All-Star softball team is one game away from immortality after downing the Canadian team from Beacon Hill, British Columbia 11-4 Tuesday. Now the McLean All-Star team, undefeated at the World Series, will face another undefeated Midway Little League team from Waco, Texas tonight at 8 p.m. for the championship.
Those family and friends who were unable to make the trip out to Portland, Oregon gathered Tuesday night at Rocco’s Italian Restaurant in McLean to watch the game and root on the girls. Those in attendance showed little restraint in the celebration department as their girls marched to victory.
“Just to make the World Series was a huge goal,” Joe Giaquinto, one of the revelers and father of All-Star Madeleine, said. “To win our pool and perform so well in the semi-final exceeded our wildest expectations. To be on the doorstep of a championship is mind-boggling.”
“It’s unbelievable,” McLean Little League President Kyle Raffaniello said. “And not because our team is untalented, but because there’s so much talent throughout the country. It’s just a great joy for so many reasons.”
Giaquinto, Raffaniello and the roughly 20 other fans at Rocco’s Tuesday had ample reason to celebrate when McLean broke the game open with an explosive second inning. Lauren McColgan’s single scored the game’s first run, and Lauren Sutherland followed with a two run single to extend the lead to 3-0. Michelle Tilson and Sarah Eidt added two more RBIs on consecutive singles and Lauren Sanata drove in the sixth run of the inning on an RBI groundout.
Following the big second inning, McLean coach Jamie Loving employed a bit of strategy to improve their chances in the championship game by sitting starting pitcher Sanata (who struck out the side in the first inning) and handing the ball over to Lauren Sutherland.
“I knew that if we played good defense and she threw strikes we’d do fine,” Loving said.
While Loving was ultimately right, the Canadian squad refused to go quietly. After McLean added another run when an Adrianne Engel groundout scored Jamie Bell, the Canadians rallied for three runs in the bottom of the third. But with a 7-3 lead, McLean sealed the victory with four more runs in the top of the sixth. Another single by Eidt drove in Rachel Ing, while a single by Sanata, who also picked up the win on the mound, drove in Tilson and Eidt. An RBI single by Bell concluded the scoring for McLean.
The championship game against Midway Little League will be televised at 8 p.m. on ESPN. Supporters from McLean will once again gather at Rocco’s to cheer on the team.
The two teams share two common opponents in Canada and Asia-Pacific. Midway topped Canada 14-2 during the pool play portion of the tournament, while besting the Asia-Pacific team 4-0 in Tuesday’s other semi-final to advance to the championship. McLean defeated those teams 11-6 and 5-4 respectively.
Before returning from Oregon early for business reasons, Giaquinto, whose other daughter Sophie was on the 9 and 10 year-old State Champion McLean All-Star team, had an opportunity to watch the Midway-Waco team and was impressed with what he saw.
“They are a very good team,” Giaquinto said Wednesday before leaving for a flight back to Oregon. “They’re very disciplined and don’t make many mistakes in the field. I feel like they’re pitching isn’t as good as the other teams in the tournament, but they might be better than us in the field and that’s where the difference might be.”
While Giaquinto was clearly impressed, Loving holds the Midway team in even higher reverence.
“They’re the New York Yankees of Little League softball,” Loving said in a phone interview during practice Wednesday. “They’ve won 10 of the last 12 championships. They play a lot like we do. I feel if we played them ten times they’d win five and we’d win five.”
McLean is in a solid position with arguably its three best members of its first rate pitching staff all available for the final in Sanata, Brooke Brown and Shannon Engel, setting the stage for a memorable Thursday night. One that McLean’s parents and fans await anxiously.
“We have a huge group of parents and supporters up here,” Loving said. “I think the calmest people are the kids.”
