SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, PA — Nevada manager TJ Fechser says every game has an inflection point, that moment on which everything turns.
Pitcher Garrett Gallegos had just tagged out a hitter on a diving play as part of a wild fifth-inning sequence. That was it, Fechser says.
But in kids’ sports, if coaches handle them right, we always get our chance to grab for more big moments.
There were now two outs and Gallegos had one more batter. His team was ahead by two runs. He said something to himself and got a swinging strikeout to end the Fairfield (Connecticut) threat.
“The whole sequence was really emotional,” the young right-handed pitcher said after the game, “thinking that was just the last out of me pitching ever pitching in Little League. It was very sentimental and like very sad, almost. But it was exciting at the same time, all the emotions together.”
Nevada wound up winning 8-2, setting up the Aug. 24 Little League World Series championship against Chinese Taipei.
On the other side, Connecticut manager Brian Palazzolo looked around and saw two full sections of his team’s fans from Fairfield. He saw the hill behind the outfield packed. He heard cheers for “Metro” (his team’s region) all over Lamade Stadium.
He soaked in the scene.
“They know what we did this summer,” he said of his team’s following. “We brought smiles to a lot of people. It would have been really nice to be playing in the championship, but we put on a great show for everybody.”
He believed his team could rally.
“They’re kids, they’re resilient, even after win, they put it right back. When we were in the regional, we lost and (they) said, ‘Coach, we’re ready to go.” Palazzolo said. “Hopefully through time and through all of our pictures we took, we could see what a great run it was.”
Even if most Little Leaguers aren’t fortunate enough to play here, the event — and the games kids push themselves to try and win leading up to it all summer — provides a lens into the youth athletics experience.
You might have that one play from your childhood, maybe more than one, that stands out in your memory. For Connecticut’s Dante Madera, you would think it was one in an earlier Little League World Series game in which his team beat Vegas. He was playing shallow and raced to snag a ball on the run that appeared far over his shoulder.
“I just sprinted back, stuck my glove out and it like hit me on the pinkie,” he recounted earlier this week, bending the finger to demonstrate, “and I just squeezed it and somehow caught it. I don’t know how.”
Was that the best catch he had ever made, a reporter asked him?
“No,” he said, smiling and shaking his head.
When we’re kids, and we’re 12, each game, each opportunity provides another chance.
In the U.S. championship, after losing to Connecticut on Aug. 20, Vegas barreled to a 3-0 lead on the strength of three hits. But Connecticut responded with a run before Gallegos shut them down with two strikeouts.
“After the first inning, I just got the hang of it because sometimes first innings are a little bit rough to kind of get used to the game,” he said. “And the big crowd. So today I just kind of had to get used to the setting and I got the hang of it during the middle of the game.”
There were more than 29,000 at Lamade, and afterward Las Vegas’ team stood on the stage below a large collection of their family members. The group began shouting “USA!” and “Let’s go South!” for their Summerlin South Little League.
Then, after the boys met the media, they headed up the hill and changed. Kids came out to the grassy area outside their dorms and horsed around, a couple of them having sword fights with what looked like plastic bats.
Little League CEO Patrick Wilson says he invited Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin, a two-time national champion, here at the start of the Little League World Series. Corbin told a story of how he asked three players on his team that had played in the Little League World Series what they remember most about it.
They talked about their friends, swimming, playing ping pong and how incredible the food is here. It might resemble the memories your kid has at your local Little League.
Earlier this week, Las Vegas’ team met with their opponents from Chinese Taipei at a barbecue. It was a friendly interaction that involved starting to learn one anothers’ languages.
As Wilson notes, Little League is 2 million kids, a million volunteers and 5,800 communities around the world.
It’s a journey we undertake with our kids, just like with other sports. They pull us to fields early on Saturday mornings and into the early darkness of weeknights. When they get a little older, we travel with them and make it part of our vacation.
Steve Greusel, 78, came to Williamsport from Las Vegas to watch his grandson, Dustin, play catcher. He said he had been to every game of all-star season, which begins the road to the Little League World Series and runs through districts, states and regionals.
He’s originally from Pennsylvania, and he is connected with relatives and friends here. He’s also learning names of his new community in Nevada. He has spotted something you might find unique to a kid baseball game.
“The parents having confidence in their sons to play this game and let them play their way, and not really trying to interact to tell them what they need to do,” he said.
It’s these types of interactions — commenting, correcting or even making a spectacle of yourself — that can push kids out of sports.
“I think a lot of parents, deep down, they have what they think about as the best interests of their child and they become so passionate about that and they want to do anything possible to make sure that their kids are set up for success and they have the best experience,” says Jason Sacks, CEO of the Positive Coaching Alliance, which partners with Little League for coach training.
The next time you see a parent explode on the sideline, he says, watch what their kid is doing. “The child is often putting their head down, looking at them, raising their hand like, ‘why are you doing this?’”
The Vegas players showed in that crucial fifth inning what they can do when we let our kids learn and execute on their own.
A laser throw from right fielder Cutter Ricafort pinned a Connecticut runner in the basepaths between third and home. A rundown ensued and, after a number of throws, Gallegos, the pitcher, made a diving play to tag out the baserunner.
“I was thinking just to one-hop the ball so our catcher can read the ball,” Dustin Greusel said. “And I one-hopped it and we got the out.”
Greusel, whom one questioner in the media room estimated had caught nearly every inning of the postseason from the state tournament on, had created another moment.
So had his team, which became the first from Nevada to reach the Little League World Series final. Chinese Taipei has won 17 LLWS titles. They will be pitching Lin Chin-Tse, who has registered an 82 mph fastball here.
To Fechser, Las Vegas’ manager, it’s just another opening for the kids.
“I think everybody in this room knows that he’s a tremendously hard thrower,” Fechser said. “We know they’re gonna compete but you gotta throw strikes. And you get the barrels through the zone, sometimes a hard pitcher helps you out a lot. That force goes the other way so we’ll be prepared and we’ll talk about it.”
Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.