WHITESTOWN, Ind. (WDRB) — For a little while, they were disappointed.
Of course they were.
They had come one game from Williamsport, which is a long way to come when you're 12 years old and an awfully short distance to miss by.
So there were a few tears Wednesday night when North Oldham Little League gathered for the last time after a 6-0 loss to Hamilton, Ohio.
Then the huddle broke. And something magic happened. The players disappeared into the embraces of parents and grandparents and siblings and fans, the community that had traveled with them on this journey.
And before long, they came out on the other side running, chasing each other, or little brothers or sisters.
Because they are 12.
The baseball had been serious. The disappointment was real. But childhood has a way of reclaiming the moment.
North Oldham had spent most of this summer finding ways to postpone that moment.
In fact, 24 hours earlier, it had survived just about everything a baseball game could throw at a team.
Three rain delays. Hours of waiting. A 4-1 deficit. Pitcher Easton Craig repeatedly getting warm, getting cold and getting warm again through a game that stretched across more than seven hours.
Pitcher Tanner Seaman throws during the first inning of North Oldham's regional final against Hamilton, Ohio.
“It was kind of annoying,” Connor Seaman said. “We had to sit in a room for, like, two hours three times. But we came back out and were focused and locked in.”
“There for a second,” Tanner Seaman said, “I thought we weren’t even going to make it to the championship.”
Then Corbin Phillips came to bat with the bases loaded as play resumed. During one of the delays, Phillips had imagined getting a big hit if he got the chance.
He got a grand slam.
"As soon as I hit it, I knew it was gone off the bat," Phillips said. "It felt amazing."
North Oldham beat Jasper, 8-5.
It was as tough a victory as any team could manufacture. And somehow, by then, it didn't seem all that surprising. These kids had been finding magic all summer.
Wednesday night, in the regional final, they needed to find it one more time. They couldn't.
Hamilton scored six runs in the first inning — a two-run home run, a three-run triple — and almost before North Oldham could settle in to this elimination final, the biggest game of its summer had already gotten away.
After that, North Oldham didn't allow another run. It just couldn't score one.
Sometimes there isn't a lesson. Sometimes the other kids are really good. Hamilton was really good.
"We played Hamilton two times and had one bad inning in each game, and we were able to blank them the rest of the game," North Oldham manager Brandon Berry said. "But they're just really good. I mean, they are a really good team."
So North Oldham's summer ended.
The magic didn't arrive on command this time. Maybe it had already done enough.
Most of these boys have been playing together since they were seven years old. Think about that for a moment.
At seven, baseball is mostly oversized uniforms and somebody reminding you which base to throw to. Williamsport isn't a destination yet. It's a place on television. Berry said 10 of the 13 North Oldham players have been together on All-Star teams since that age.
They've played other sports together. Gone to church together. Slept over at each other's houses. Grown up in one another's homes and backyards and dugouts.
"It's like we're all brothers," Tanner Seaman said. "We all just bond so well, and we all care for each other so much."
You could look for a more complicated explanation for how a small Little League from La Grange got within one victory of Williamsport.
Second baseman Cooper Berry turns a double play in the first inning of North Oldham's regional final game against Hamilton Ohio.
I don't know that you need one. They grew up together.
They practiced twice a day for four straight weeks this summer. Coach Matthew Teague said they showed up every day ready to work, even as the coaches pushed them hard.
Cooper Berry remembered the schedule: practice from 9 to 11 in the morning, then again from 7 to 9 at night.
"We've been working our butts off every single day," he said.
Teague talked afterward about Seaman, his shortstop and pitcher, as "our dog," the kid he wanted when the season was on the line. He talked about Craig's remarkable performance against Indiana. He talked about four or five players capable of carrying the team and everybody else understanding his role.
“It always sucks when it ends, no matter what,” Teague said. “I mean, there's only one team that comes out on top every year. But we had such a fun ride with these guys. They worked super, super hard. I couldn't ask for a better group of kids to be around and devote my time. The memories that this group has made, just winning a state title, making a deep run. I couldn't ask for a better experience and better group.”
Listen to the kids afterward and they kept remembering everybody else. Sometimes after losses, nobody wants to talk. With this team, it’s important that you know that everyone wanted to talk.
Craig brought up a hit Braxton Anderson had made back in districts. Phillips talked about playing with the same boys since he was seven. Henry Baker and Ethan Hodges talked up Phillips' grand slam.
Nobody seemed particularly interested in explaining his own importance.
Maybe that's what happens when you've been teammates for half your life. And maybe that's how a team keeps finding the next little piece of magic.
A hit in districts. A pitcher who keeps getting loose through three rain delays. A grand slam with the season hanging there. A comeback when you're down 4-1.
Eventually, there isn't another one. Wednesday night, there wasn't.
"We had that one inning that we didn't do very good," Braxton Anderson said. "But we stayed in the fight the whole tournament."
They did. All the way to the last game before Williamsport. That is no small journey for what Cooper Berry called "a small little league" from La Grange.
"This is a very giant step for our little league," he said.
And maybe that's why, after it ended, the adults seemed to understand the size of what had happened a little differently than the kids did.
Brandon Berry had noticed it all week. The coaches knew how big the stage had become. The boys knew, too, he supposed. There were ESPN cameras everywhere. A trip to Williamsport was at stake.
Then they'd get back to the hotel. They'd run around. They'd giggle. They'd play.
"They're still kids," Berry said. "And I'm honestly in awe that they have the ability to just turn it on like that."
Cooper Berry was asked whether he noticed all the cameras while he was playing.
"Nah," he said.
Of course not. We're the ones who notice the cameras. We're the ones who call it the Great Lakes Regional championship and talk about elimination and Williamsport and put their names on television graphics.
They know those things matter. They wanted to win desperately.
But they are still kids playing baseball with friends they've known since they were seven. Sometimes that’s enough.
While the rest of us are paying attention to the stage, they are too busy playing on it.
Still, Tanner Seaman understood what the summer had meant.
"It didn't pan out the way that we wanted it to," he said. "But it's the best thing I've ever done in my life."
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