THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9408300198
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 23 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE MICHAUX, COMPASS SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
It's a classic situation.
Two outs, bottom of the seventh inning, bases are loaded and your team is down by two runs.
Every Little League player dreams about hitting in that winning run in a championship game, but not many dream about being on the losing end.
That is where the Little Creek National Bronco All-Star team was in the East Zone Championship game against New Bedford, Mass.
Little Creek owned a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the seventh. A couple of errors in the field loaded the bases and two outs a New Bedford player drilled a grand slam to win the game 6-4.
But nobody on the Little Creek team was hanging his head. That was the farthest a Norfolk Pony League team had gone in post-season play.
``We had a really good time,'' manager Pepper Hale said. ``This is one of the best teams I have ever been involved with.''
Hale had just five teams to chose his all-stars from, but he found a lot of quality.
``We had a lot of good ball players,'' Hale said. ``Players that are just going to keep getting better.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Members and coaches of the Little Creek National Bronco All-Star
Team are, kneeling from left to right: Pat Gadsby, Eric Plum, Brooks
Hierstein, Brian Kirby, Payton Mule, Chris Ballou and Gary Neff.
Standing are: Danny McCann, Miles Nixon, Lucas Wilkinson, Brandon
Hollifield, Chuck Mule, Mark Basnight, Shawn Bailey, Jeff Treichel
and Pepper Hale.
by CNB