Last night, the Walpole American 12-year-old All-Stars watched a fireworks display.
Then, tomorrow, they get down to the business of trying to win the New England Regional at Bristol, Connecticut’s A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League Leadership Training Center.
Needless to say, it will be quite a week for the Americans, who start the tournament with tomorrow’s meeting with Rhode Island’s Cranston West (2 p.m.).
“Yeah, we made it down here (yesterday) morning and we’re just getting acclimated to this whole scene,” said Walpole American manager Brian Oberacker. “It’s pretty unbelievable.”
The site will also be home to the Mid-Atlantic Regional with teams hailing from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware.
“It’s like a baseball campus. There’s 12 teams down here from all over the East Coast,” said Oberacker. “We had to come down, get right in uniform. We took team pictures, the kids moved all their gear into the dorms and they had a barbecue for us. The parents got to come sit down and eat. There was a brief opening ceremony with fireworks and they introduced all the teams. It’s something to remember.”
With his team taking it all in, Oberacker said the Americans are ready to play ball.
“We’ve had one day without baseball here and it seems like they’re itching to get back out there,” he said.
Still, he’s not worried about his team getting too emotionally jacked up.
“That’s the thing about this team. You’d expect 12-year-old kids to be nervous, but this is the most poised group of kids that I’ve ever coached,” he said. “We’ve been up a bunch of runs, we’ve been down and they just stay together and you can’t ask for more about a group of young kids.”
After the first day’s festivities, Oberacker and Co. have had chance to size up the competition.
“Just by looks Cranston has some size,” he said. “You’ve got to be ready and expect to see everybody’s ace the first game. We’ve got to get ready to go. Portsmouth (N.H.) is there. They’re the reigning New England champions.”
And while the Americans made their mark in Pittsfield by battering opposing pitching staffs, Oberacker believes his team will need to win in the way the town is known for.
“It’s really going to come down to pitching and defense out here,” he said. “We’ll have to do it the old-fashioned Walpole way.”
Either way, the excitement is starting to peak in Bristol, and the Americans are bringing down reinforcements.
“I’ll tell you what, I’m nervous just thinking about it,” said Oberacker. “It’s a mini-stadium. They’re expecting thousands of people. We heard Walpole Little League is sending three busloads of people. We’ll be excited to see all the fans.”
Still, there’s no sense from Oberacker that his team is just happy to be there.
“Pittsfield was great. We haven’t lost a game throughout this whole summer,” he said. “If we can play like we’re capable of, I think we’re going to be okay.”
