Little League World Series: West Side first Ohio team to reach championship game

“I’ve always been involved in Little League,” Coomer said. “My family’s always been involved. Even when I was a kid, my dad was involved. After I got through college, I got involved in Little League. It’s always been a part of my life.”

On Sunday, Coomer will experience as an adult what he dreamed about as a kid. His West Side Little League team will play in the Little League World Series championship game.

The team of Hamilton 12-year-old all-stars made history by beating Sioux Falls, S.D., 5-2 on Saturday afternoon in the semifinals at Lamade Stadium. West Side, the third Ohio team to reach the semifinals and the first since 1974, became the first team from the Buckeye State to advance to the championship game.

West Side ran a lap around the stadium with a banner celebrating the Tom Seaver Bracket championship after the victory. Fans in the stands chanted, “O-H-I-O,” as the players celebrated.

“It feels pretty good,” said West Side’s Cooper Oden, the starting pitcher Saturday. “Every 12-year-old who plays baseball, this is actually their dream, and we’re actually fulfilling that dream.”

“It’s crazy,” West Side’s Maddox Jones said.

“I know I’m not 12,” Coomer said. “I’m 48, but I feel like l’m 12. To have these kids go through what they’ve went through, they’ve earned all of it. I’m so proud. Hamilton’s so proud. Ohio’s so proud. One more.”

West Side will play Taylor North Little League (Mich.) at 3 p.m. Sunday. The game will air on ABC. Taylor North beat Honolulu, Hi., 2-1 in the second semifinal. West Side and Taylor North played in the regional tournament final, and West Side lost 9-1.

To get to the championship game, West Side survived its fourth straight elimination game. It stayed alive by beating Lafayette, La., 8-2, Manchester-Hooksett, N.H., 4-3 on Wednesday and Torrance, Calif., 4-2 on Thursday.

In the semifinals, West Side ran into a team that had allowed one hit and no runs in three victories. West Side matched that hit total with a two-out single by Chance Retherford, who went 2-for-3, in the first inning.

In the second inning, Jones started a four-run rally with a single. Jones was forced out at second base on a groundout by Cooper Clay. After Gage Maggard walked with one out, Cooper Oden singled, and Clay scored from second when the right fielder failed to come up with the ball cleanly. That was the first run Sioux Falls allowed in the tournament.

The next batter, Krew Brown, reached on a bunt single, loading the bases with one out. Levi Smith then singled to right. The ball rolled under the right fielder’s glove, and Maggard, Owen and Brown all scored, giving West Side a 4-0 lead.

At that point, chants of “Let’s go West Side!” could be heard on the ABC broadcast.

Meanwhile, Oden was rolling through the first two innings, allowing two hits. His mom Tricia Oden talked to ABC as she roamed the aisles of Lamade Stadium during the second inning.

“Cooper has no nerves,” she said. “It’s all me. Every time he’s on the mound, I can’t sit still. I have to walk.”

After the game, though, Cooper admitted he was nervous in the first inning.

“This is probably the biggest game I’ve pitched in my life and probably will ever pitch,” he said.

Oden allowed two earned runs on eight hits in five innings. He struck out six.

“That kid threw a great game,” South Dakota coach Mike Gorsett said. “He was pretty dialed in on his location. He would mix in his fastball. His fastball is not overpowering, but when he throws off-speed pitches, it ties guys up.”

Sioux Falls got on the board with a two-out RBI single in the fourth. West Side got the run back in the fifth when a single by Jones scored Retherford.

In the sixth, the first four batters reached for Sioux Falls, which cut the deficit to 5-2. Kaleb Harden replaced Oden on the mound and got a strikeout after walking the first batter he faced. He then got a flyout to right field with the bases loaded. Finally, Jones fielded a hard-hit ground ball at third base and stepped on the bag to record the final out.

West Side has now won five games in this tournament after winning three games in its first four trips to the Little League World Series.

“It’s always your goal: winning the World Series,” Coomer said. “But we understand. I’ve been doing this for 28 years now. The other two times I’ve come, we’ve only won one game each time. I understand how hard it is. We basically approached it the right way. We approached it one game at a time. We never looked ahead. We always tried to concentrate on the game we play next. And here we are.”