BOISE, Idaho — It’s every young ballplayer’s dream — to play under the lights in Williamsport, Pennsylvania — and compete in the Little League World Series.
For the Southwest Ada County Little League team, that dream is alive and well. After a standout season, they clinched the Idaho state title. Now they’re headed to regionals, with a shot to represent the Gem State on the national stage.
WATCH | Neighborhood Reporter Allie Triepke caught up with the team before they left for the tournament:
“It’s really fun to play against the different districts and teams, like from other place that we haven’t played before,” said Ira.
Ira and Gage are both catchers on the team. They say it’s an honor and a big responsibility to represent Idaho.
“Yeah, I’m kind of nervous, I don’t want to mess up, “ said Gage. "I’ll try my best."
‘So we’re going to take every single ground ball, every single fly ball with 100% intensity. Got it?” Head Coach David Stout has led this group for five years. And he says this season, something just clicked.
“Sometime in June, we were just playing and you could just see that these kids have a little something extra when the going gets tough, they fight,” Stout said.
Win or lose ,David is proud of his player’s growth and hard work.
“There’s been several times where we’ve been down a lot of runs going into an inning and we somehow managed to claw back in and win,” said Stout.
Now, the team heads to the Little League Northwest Regional Tournament this weekend. They’ll be battling top teams from surrounding states in a double-elimination bracket.
The community is rooting for them as they go head-to-head with Oregon Sunday night. First pitch is at 7 p.m. MST, streaming live on ESPN+.
