It was a whirlwind week for St. Louis Park Little League and its 12-year-old baseball team, which wrapped up the season at the Little League Midwest regional tournament in Indiana.
Orange and black-clad supporters represented well at the ballpark in Whitestown, Indiana, while numerous viewing parties around town helped channel support from afar. Park ended up finishing fourth among the eight-team field.
South Dakota will represent the Midwest at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, after defeating Missouri 6-1 in the championship game on Friday.
Orange and Black
Park went 2-2, ending its run with a 15-0 loss to Iowa (Davenport Southeast) on Aug. 6 in the second elimination game in as many days. Iowa was then shut out by South Dakota (Sioux Falls) 3-0 in the elimination bracket final.
Park opened the tournament with a 9-8 win over Wisconsin (Kenosha) on Aug. 3 before South Dakota blanked Park 12-0 in the winner’s bracket semifinal on Aug. 4.
Facing elimination, Park responded with a massive 16-6 win over Kansas (Riverton) on Aug. 5 before the final game against Iowa on Aug. 6.
The dramatic comeback win over Wisconsin in the opener featured Park showing its explosive batting, rallying for seven runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning to take a 9-5 lead.
A three-run double by Cameron Dvoracek capped off the rally as he was one of 10 Park batters to pick up a hit. Three of those batters, including Cameron Howell, Olan Gryniewski and Grady Newhall, had two hits.
Starting pitcher Owen Riggs went 2 2/3 innings, recording the lone strikeout for Park. Axel Meyer, Dvoracek, and Jones Broxey worked in relief, with Dvoracek picking up the win in 1 2/3 innings.
Wisconsin was first to get on the board in the first inning, but Park responded with a double by Meyer and a single by Newhall to tie the game at 2-2 in the second inning.
Wisconsin trailed 9-5 in the sixth inning, and a three-run home run with two outs narrowed the lead to 9-8. Park’s first baseman, Luvanda Anderson, caught a popout in foul territory to end the game.
South Dakota scored five times in the top half of the first inning and added another seven runs to limit the game to five innings in a 12-0 win.
Park was limited to five hits, including two from Anderson, who also started on the pitcher’s mound.
Anderson and Evan Barth began the second inning with base hits, but three strikeouts dashed Park’s hopes.
Park rebounded with a 16-6 win over Kansas in an elimination game on Monday.
Park’s bats once again came alive, pounding out 16 runs on 14 hits, including a 10-run fourth inning to put the game away. Multiple hits came from Gryniewski, Barth, Meyer and Anderson. Barth and Anderson each had a double and scored once. Anderson drove in three runs, and Meyer drove in two runs, scoring twice. Meyer and Howell each stole a base. Owen Riggs earned the win in 3 1/3 innings, striking out five batters in relief of Meyer, who started.
The big fourth inning saw 16 Park batters come to the plate. Meyer had a single and walked in the inning.
In the tournament’s final game, Park fell short against Iowa 15-0 in four innings.
Park drew three walks in the fourth inning from Edward Scheraldi, Charlie Watson and Bennett Kirkpatrick to load the bases before Iowa struck out a pair of batters to end the game.
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