With each passing day, the experience for the Walpole American 12-year-old All-Star baseball team becomes more and more surreal.
Just the other day, manager Brian Oberacker received a message of encouragement on his cell phone from a colleague, of sorts. It just so happened that Red Sox manager Terry Francona wanted to wish the team well.
‘‘I just wanted to give you a call and tell you and your team we’re pulling for you,’’ said Francona. ‘‘You’re representing New England, as I think we are, and hopefully, maybe in about a month, we can both be at Fenway raising our hands in victory. I just wanted to call you and tell you I’m rooting for you and please tell your team I said best of luck and go get ’em.’’
According to Oberacker, this message to the gaggle of Red Sox diehards he coaches was met with stunned silence.
It’s been that kind of week.
‘‘We’re in baseball heaven,’’ said Oberacker, whose team is set to kick off the Little League World Series today against West Side (Hamilton, Ohio), the Great Lakes representative.
‘‘I mean, it doesn’t get any bigger than this. We were the first team here, we got settled in. There was camera crews waiting for us as soon as we stepped off the bus, followed us into the dorm. We went through all of our media obligations early. And now we’ve just been practicing two, three times a day, just itching to get on that big field.’’
‘‘Once the kids saw the big field they realized the enormity of the whole thing and where we are,’’ said fellow coach, Jared Ruggieri. ‘‘That field, just to look at it, is a treat. These kids realize now that there’s no step higher than Williamsport, Pa. You’ve made it here and regardless of how we do, everybody’s real proud of these kids and we think that we can make some noise.’’
The Americans reached ‘‘baseball heaven’’ by winning four straight tournaments and compiling a 19-1 record over that span. The team won the District 11 crown, the Section 3 title before conquering the state tournament in Pittsfield and the New England tournament last week in Bristol, Conn.
Starting today, Walpole American plays three pool games against other teams from around the country and if it earns one of the top two seeds of the group, will play in a national semifinal next week where play goes to single elimination.
