The village of Clarendon Hills is celebrating after their Little League team won the Great Lakes Regional Final and is now on their way to the Little League World Series.
Through every cheer and every tense moment of Wednesday night’s game between Illinois and Ohio, Donna Mittlestadt watched at the Open Door Taproom and Bottle Shop with what felt like the rest of the Clarendon Hills community.
“My son, one of my three sons played little league here in Clarendon Hills. And we have a little cousin who is on the team, Luka,” she said.
Family, friends, even the players’ fifth grade teachers Julie Hafner and Lynn Marquardt came out to support the team in this make-or-break showdown.
“Even getting to this championship game after losing to Ohio on Monday, I just want to show them who we are,” Hafner said.
Parents at the game in Indiana said the boys have put so much hard work to get to this point. They cannot thank their coaches and manager Brian Herold enough.
“For the kids this is another game, for the coaches and parents this is nerve wracking,” Herold said.
Herold said his players have been facing teams who come from big cities with populations around 300,000. Clarendon Hills has a population of 9,000, so to find 12 talented young men has been a blessing, he said.
“We knew we could end up in the championship game, so we preserved some of our pitchers. And it was a lopsided game, so I think based on the lopsided result they think they have us tonight,” he said.
And he was right. A bottom of the sixth strike out sealed the deal. Illinois beat Ohio 9 to 4.
“Anytime something like this happens everyone in Clarendon Hills just rallies together,” Hafner said.
The Clarendon Hills team now heads to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of Little League baseball. They leave at 7 a.m., and this community will be right back here, cheering for them all the way.
The Little League team in Elmhurst went to the World Series in 2023 but did not win.
The team will spend 10 days practicing twice a day until they play.