It’s a success story three years in the making, pushed forward at every step by coaches, parents and the players, and all to give Louis Lappe one swing of his bat.
The 11- and 12-year-old champions from El Segundo Little League, on the power of Lappe’s game-winning hit on Sunday, claimed the 2023 Little League World Series in the most dramatic way – via a walk-off home run.
“I knew it was gone. He crushed it,” catcher Lucas Keldorf said. “I just chucked up my helmet because we’d just won Williamsport in a walk-off.”
The team returned home from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on Monday to a massive crowd of family, friends and supporters at LAX and a caravan with a sizeable police escort from Imperial Highway south to El Segundo Boulevard.
“When you’re in Williamsport and you’re in the isolated bubble, you have kids asking for autographs and they haven’t really re-entered their world yet,” Lucas’ mom Michelle Keldorf said. “So we’re all really curious to see what happens when they get home. All of us are a little bit holding our breath.”
THE BACK STORY
More than half the team attended the same elementary school and the core group of players has been together as El Segundo Little League All-Stars going back to when they were all 9 years old.
“I’ve been playing with these boys since 10U,” center fielder Max Baker said. “We all know each other really well.”
Danny Boehle has managed the team from the start, guiding the group with his own personal combination of love, humility and accountability.
Lappe was added to the roster ahead of this season, giving the team another front-line starting pitcher and an emerging power threat.
“With the addition of Louis, who I’d say is one of the best pitchers in the country, the confidence was there,” Michelle Keldorf said.
THE PARENTS
This summer will live long in their bank accounts but even longer in their memories.
“You scramble to try to find flights and places to stay in…
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