Local team heads to LL World Series

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. (WPRI) - Portsmouth Challenger Ryan MacDonald sprints in from Center Field, slides feet first and snags a humped-back liner, inches before it hits the sun drenched grass.

“Yeah!” he screams, popping up right before spiking the ball during a recent practice on Jim Rooney field.

His coaches and teammates cheer with excitement along with manager Robert Dyl but then comes the lesson.

“Ryan! Great catch but now the guy who was on second ran to third. We got to hit the cut off,” Dyl says, breaking into a grin that evolves into a chuckle while he watches 12 year old Ryan dance around the outfield in celebration.

Dyl and a team of Portsmouth little leaguers have plenty of reasons to smile. The Aquidneck Island 9 is one of two Challenger Division ball clubs out of thousands in the entire country that’ll play the 2012 Little League World Series exhibition game. Their opponent will trek to Williamsport, Pennsylvania from North Carolina for the Saturday afternoon match.

Diving catches and frozen ropes are great but muffed grounders and cue shots get cheers too.

“Foul ball, Danny,” Dyl encourages. “Take another one.”

And he does.

“There you go Danny, There you go,” as the kid rips one to left and does his best to sprint down the line to cheers from the parents, watching in the stands.

If kids playing ball on a local diamond in the summer is pure, this brand of the game on Little League’s grandest stage would seem to be pristine.

“I think,” Ryan Costa says with a broad smile. “Exciting and pretty cool.”

“And I love baseball,” a sweaty MacDonald adds. “And it's my favorite sport in the whole wide world.”

How much they love the game is only one reason Portsmouth made it to the 'whole wide' World Series. It was also about what they do off the field with a pinch of Dyl’s determination part of the recipe as well. He started applying a few years back and was told an East Coast team would be picked around 2010.

“So, I kept applying and they were true to their word.”

One quality that Dyl thinks put Portsmouth in contention is community support and how much the team does off the field.

“We try to keep them together and just involved with baseball. They’ve been to Cooperstown. They've been to Fenway a couple of times.”

When we remind him that the Red Sox don’t always hit the cut off man like his players do, he laughed.

“That's true. That's true. Have a couple of them come here. We'll show them how to play.”

As parents, friends and fans cheer for the 15 Portsmouth kids who left the high school Friday morning, their appreciation is equaled by the players’ own expectations.

“Cause, I'm going to hit a homerun,” Seth Dame predicts, calling a shot like Babe Ruth.

“The only limitations these kids have,” Dyl says. “Are the ones that we set on them.”

And since there are thousands of Challenger teams across the country, and only 2 a year get to play in the Williamsport exhibition game, Portsmouth’s feat is more statistically amazing than the Red Sox or Yankees getting to a World Series.

"Considering the number of teams out there?,” Dyl says. “A team from Rhode island making it there may not happen again for a long, long time.”

Send your story ideas to Walt Buteau at wbuteau@wpri.com and follow Walt on Twitter: @wbuteau