Sioux Falls little league enjoying Williamsport

WILLIAMSPORT, PA (KELO) — The Sioux Falls little league team captured a 6-1 win over Missouri on Friday, to advance to the Little League World Series. Now, the team is in Williamsport, Pennsylvania as one of the top teams in the country.

Sioux Falls arrived in Williamsport Saturday evening, giving them a chance to see the Little League World Series stadium.

“It’s awesome. It’s one of the nicest fields that I’ve ever seen in my life. From where we saw it, it looked like an MLB field,” Sioux Falls player August Vortherms said.

The team had some down time over the past 48 hours, allowing them to interact with players from around the world.

“We’ve been doing basketball, wiffle ball, a little bit of pickle ball and having fun in the game room playing ping pong with people from other countries and having fun making new friends,” player Luke Fenton said.

“I love hanging out with them. It’s great to see how different people are and it’s great to see them, because I haven’t seen a lot of people from other countries,” Vortherms.

Sioux Falls is still keeping their focus on the game as they prepare to face a tough team from Florida.

“They’re a good hitting baseball team.Their top end pitchers are as good as we’ve seen and they throw it really hard. They’ve got a couple kids who were pushing 70 and 72 miles per hour in their state tournament,” coach Nick Kortan said.

Sioux Falls will now take on the role of team South Dakota, raising plenty of support from back home.

“They know that the Mayor of Sioux Falls is watching and paying attention and sending me messages,” Kortan said. “They know that people in Pierre and the Governor are watching and paying attention. It means a lot to these guys and it means a lot to us.”

The players said it can be challenging to communicate with players from other countries, but they’re doing their best using translators on their phone.

South Dakota will play Florida in the first round of the tournament on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. on ESPN.

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