Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

It's the Big Leagues for Bowling Green's Little League Team

Kentucky will have a representative in the Little League World Series.

An eight-run explosion in the 2nd inning carried Kentucky's Bowling Green Little League team to a 13-0 win in four innings over Wisconsin Saturday to win the Great Lakes Regional Championship.

The last time a Kentucky team won the Great Lakes Region was La Grange in 2011.

The Bowling Green team now goes on to face the West Regional Champion Sweetwater Valley from Oregon in the first round of the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. That game will be Thursday evening.

The team went right to Pennsylvania following Saturday's game in Indianapolis. Their head coach Rick Kelley told WKU Public Radio the 11, 12 and 13 year old boys don't really show their emotion on their sleeve but, "they have to be overwhelmed by the whole sight."

Their dorm overlooks the field they'll be playing on during the Series.

Kelley said many of the boys have never even been out of Warren County before so it's "good to see them taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime experience." Kelley says they're hanging out in the stadium's rec room playing Ping Pong with players from other teams who are there from all over the world.

Kelley said, "It's really amazing to see how much the boys have matured in just the last six weeks, but this takes then to a whole other level. They're missing a lot of classroom time back home, but they're learning more life experience on this trip than they ever could in the classroom."