Peachtree City Little League team enjoys a run that won t be forgotten any time soon The Athletic By Tori McElhaney Sep 7, 2018 On days when the Peachtree City community isn t using the stage and grassy lawn at Drake Field, the small field serenely overlooks the calm waters of Lake Peachtree. With swings and benches it s a picturesque place to be on a warm fall afternoon. But while Drake Field was still picturesque, it was painting a different picture Tuesday afternoon. Hundreds of people from the Peachtree City community came out in celebration of the Peachtree City Little League team a team that had just returned from a trip to the Little League World Series.
Lines formed as families waited for baseball-decorated cupcakes. Ice cream, sandwiches, hot dogs and T-shirts were sold to all willing to spend a couple of bucks as vendors lined the field. A deep gold sprinkled the crowd as friends and families came out in support of the young men, representing the team by wearing the colors of its World Series uniform. Even a swarm of dragonflies danced in and out of the crowd in rhythm with the music (because, honestly, it wouldn t be a baseball-related celebration without John Fogerty s hit Centerfield playing over the loudspeakers). It s magical, Amy Soper, the mother of pitcher Connor Riggs-Soper, said as she looked out over the crowd that had gathered moments before the celebration began. It s a once-in-a-lifetime deal. For the 14 players on the Peachtree City Little League team, it truly was. In the history of the Peachtree City Little League, no team had advanced to the Little League World Series, which is played annually in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. This year s team also was the first from the District 4 Little League in Georgia to do so. And the Peachtree City team was the first from Georgia to win the Southeastern Regional and advance to the Little League World Series since 2011. As the celebration began Tuesday, smiles were contagious as the players and their coaches made their way onto the stage at Drake Field to thundering cheers and applause (as well as a few laughs) from the community that supported them the whole way. As the program progressed, the Fayette County Board of Education issued a proclamation to the team before local businesses generously gave money to the parents, who spent nearly a month traveling with their sons as they played in their district, state, regional and, ultimately, World Series tournaments. The support from the community has been overwhelming, said manager Patrick Gloriod. When you are in Williamsport, you are kind of in a bubble, so we didn t really know what was going on back home while we were up there. I remember one of my friends calling me and saying that he had never seen anything like it; that how not only
Peachtree City but all of Atlanta was rooting for our team. I think that surprised everybody by just how big it got. As the cheers rang out over the still waters of Lake Peachtree on Tuesday afternoon, the players of the Peachtree City Little League smiled at seeing the celebration for their exploits. A long time coming For 22 years, Linda North has traveled up to Williamsport for the Little League World Series. As the District 4 Georgia Little League Ambassador (a position she has held since the late 1990s), she isn t required to go to the World Series. But for North, the yearly trip was never about duty it was always about a love for the Little League organization. I stay involved at the youth level because that s my desire to see kids experience the national pastime, North said. North had never experienced a Little League World Series with a team from her district. But an early conversation with Gloriod established an early hope that 2018 would be different. I told her at the beginning of the season that I thought this was the year that we would get a team up there for her, Gloriod said. A berth into the World Series doesn t come easily, and in the case of Peachtree City s run to the U.S. championship in Williamsport at the end of August, there was never an easy day. The challenge began early, as the state of Georgia constantly churns out highly competitive Little League teams (and high-level baseball players in general). For years, the teams from Warner Robins American Little League and Columbus-Northern Little League have controlled the regional, including back-to-back World Series titles in 2006 (Columbus) and 2007 (Warner Robins). But the emergence of competitive teams in Smyrna and East Cobb has made even getting to the Southeast Regional tournament more difficult. Four or five programs now are regularly in the hunt to earn Georgia s one spot in the tournament.
You know that if you can win the state of Georgia that you have a very good opportunity of going to regionals and then on to Williamsport, Gloriod said. After clinching the Georgia title, the Peachtree City team moved on to the Southeast Regional in Warner Robins, where it faced teams representing Tennessee, Alabama and Virginia. Before Peachtree City defeated Virginia 3-0 in the championship game to advance to the World Series, it had to outlast Virginia and Tennessee in the opening rounds of the tournament. It defeated both teams by one after scoring the winning run in the sixth inning in each game. It s this constant competition at the regional level, as well as the state level, that Gloriod said prepared his team for the challenges that would come in Williamsport. The uphill battle Hawaii was the strongest team at Williamsport at the end of August. And fate would have it that Peachtree City would face Hawaii to open the World Series. Peachtree City knew it faced a tough test, but by the end of the game, both teams would go down in Little League history after Hawaii hit a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the 11th inning. It tied for the longest game in World Series recorded history. We went into the Hawaii game knowing that Hawaii was probably the best team there, Gloriod said. So, we spared our pitching accordingly, so that we had pitchers available on Saturday in the event that we lost. It was a decision that paid off as Peachtree City rolled off four wins in a row to fight back to face Hawaii again in the U.S. championship game. It was a run that highlighted Peachtree City s use of quality at-bats and shutdown pitching from Jansen Kenty, Ben Traxler, Tai Peete and Riggs- Soper players who did damage at the plate consistently while also throwing pitches in the low-70-mph range.
Peachtree City s Little League team reached the U.S. championship game of the Little League World Series. (Photo by Alex Trautwig/MLB Photos via Getty Images) It shows how deep our pitching was when you are in the winners bracket, you are facing a kid who is throwing 75 miles per hour every day, Gloriod said about his team s run through the losers bracket. We faced someone like that every day in state and every day in region that was throwing 70 to 75 miles per hour, so once my kids got to see some of the secondary pitchers from a lot of these teams, they started hitting the ball. Soper vividly remembers the day of the U.S. championship game and a conversation she had with her son moments before he was set to make the start against Hawaii. She remembers simply going up to him to ask how he was feeling. It was the U.S. championship game, after all, and it was also the sixth high-intensity game that Peachtree City had played in eight days. Mom, I m good, Soper recalled Connor saying to her before taking the mound that day. He said, I feel really good about this because it s
just another baseball game. I am going to go out there and do what I do but you know what the greatest thing is? I m here. Peachtree City lost 3-0 to Hawaii in the U.S. championship game, then fell 8-2 to Japan in the consolation game the next day. Despite the tournament s end for Peachtree City, the team now holds the title of the fourth-best Little League team in the world and second-best team in the U.S. Gloriod would be the first to say that just making it to the World Series was a huge accomplishment for any team to be proud of. And for Peachtree City, there probably wasn t anyone more proud than North, who waited 22 years to share the joy of the World Series with a team from her district. This year was so special because I got to share that Little League experience with people from my hometown, North said. I have seen it firsthand, and I go because it is uplifting. I love the atmosphere up there, and finally this year I got to share it. I got to see the joy on these people s faces. The biggest accomplishment As the players and coaches of the Peachtree City Little League made their way into Lamade Stadium for the last time to face Japan in the consolation game, North stood looking on with her husband and son. As she prepared to watch the team for the final time at the World Series, she was told by the team s uncle (a volunteer host who stays with the team throughout the entire World Series experience) that Peachtree City, along with Hawaii, was going to be named a corecipient of the Jack Losch Little League Baseball World Series Team Sportsmanship Award. It was the first time in the award s 15 years of existence that two teams received the award, which voted on by the 16 participating teams, coaches, uncles, aunts, other volunteers and members of the media. I literally broke down, said North, fighting back tears when recalling the memory. It was the most meaningful moment.
Gloriod, who has been involved with the Little League organization in Peachtree City for 11 years, said he couldn t say enough about the players. He called them some of the most genuine kids you could meet. And for many who saw Peachtree City play in the World Series, whether there in Williamsport or on ESPN at the Johnny s Pizza back in town, the way in which these 12- and 13-year-olds conducted themselves was never missed. They ve shown people that even in a competitive environment you can still find that friendship, Soper said. No matter what happens, it doesn t matter if you win or lose, it s all about the love of the game. It s a love that will carry these 14 players into the next chapter, one that will be hard to follow after this Little League season. And while they will grow up and move on from playing with a Little League team, one notion will remain from the crowd that cheered on that picturesque Tuesday afternoon at Drake Field in Peachtree City. No one can take this away from them, Soper said with a smile as Centerfield played overhead. (Top photo by Alex Trautwig/MLB Photos via Getty Images) What did you think of this story? Tori is a recent graduate of the University of Georgia where she spent three years covering Georgia athletics culminating with coverage of Georgia football s run to the National Championship with DawgNation. Thanks to one of her internships with the Chattanooga Times Free Press, she has reported on everything from high school prep to Chattanooga FC. Tori will be joining The Athletic in August after concluding an internship as the associate reporter for the Atlanta Braves with MLB.com.