PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The manager of the suburban Philadelphia Little League team that needed just one hit — a walk-off, two-run home run — to advance to the Little League World Series had the same question on his mind as anyone who has stepped foot in the home of WAWA convenience stores and wooder ice: Is the Little League World Series ready for Delco?
“I don't think they know what's coming,” said a laughing Tom Bradley, who leads the team from Media, Pennsylvania. “Delco is like it's own little world. I don't think they're ready for this accent."
The Media team, from about 20 miles southwest of Philly, defeated the team from Northwest Washington D.C., 2–0 on Friday in the Mid-Atlantic Regional championship game in Bristol, Connecticut. Trevor Skowronek's two-run homer in the seventh inning was the only hit for Media in the game.
“It was a pretty darn big hit,” Bradley said.
Maybe somewhere actress Kate Winslet — who needed months to master the mush-mouthed Delco dialect of “youse” and the “Iggles” in the HBO hit “Mare of Easttown" — was celebrating.
Media — part of a cluster of towns outside of Philly in Delaware Country affectionately known as Delco — is part of the 20-team Little League World Series set to start Wednesday in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The last Pennsylvania team to win the Little League World Series was Levittown, in 1960.
Bradley spoke Friday night with his team in the midst of a pizza and soda bash at the team hotel in Connecticut. There was no time to plan a ritzy rally in the current home of comedian Wanda Sykes. The Media team is not permitted to return home — the team boards a 7 a.m. bus Saturday headed straight for Williamsport.
“What about my car? Can't I drop my car off,” Bradley said with a laugh. “They said no. Leave your car here and we'll arrange somebody to drive it back home.”
With the bracket set, Media will play an opening-round game Wednesday against the Southwest Champion, Texas East’s representative, Needville Little League.
Bradley lives outside Media, in Brookhaven, and has coached three daughters in softball and his 21-year-old son, now an assistant on the team, for about 25 years. He doesn’t have any family on the team, but wanted to stay involved in youth coaching after his kids finished playing. He has coached members of this team since they were 10 years old — for years, their path to state championships was blocked by fellow Delco teams from nearby Aston — and they finally broke through at the tournament in Bristol.
“We've been running these kids into the ground for like three months now,” Bradley said. “It really paid off. A lot of parents were kind of like, don't you think they need off? Don't you think they need off the Fourth off July? We worked every day, every weekend. Other teams were taking off. No, we've got to put the work in."
One extra perk, Bradley and the local kids should be able to attend the MLB Little League Classic in Williamsport on Aug. 20 between the Washington Nationals and hometown Philadelphia Phillies.
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