Last-Place Seed Goes on to Little League Victory

The odds weren’t in the La Grange Cubs' favor.

They lost the last seven games of the regular season. Heading into the Little League A League playoffs, they were seeded ninth out of nine teams. Two of the better players were sidelined with injuries.

The Cubs lost their first playoff game.

And then something remarkable happened.

“Their bats came to life,” Head Coach Red Weller said. “They just started pounding the snot out of the ball.”

The team scored 19 runs in that second game, giving them a confidence that carried them through seven straight wins and, last weekend, the A League championships, where they beat the top-seed White Sox to become the local victors.

“The more we hit, the more we won, the more confident they got,” said Weller, whose 12-year-old son is on the team.

In this case, Weller said, the old cliché applies: Every player contributed to the streak.

“I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true,” he said.

Some players made an extraordinary turnaround, such as the player with the worst batting record who suddenly began smashing the ball into the outfield at Sedgwick Park. (The team, appropriately, was sponsored by Smashburger.)

Another player in his last year on the team struggled with strike outs through the season but hit two homeruns during his final three at-bats.

When the Cubs won, Weller said a flood of kids descended on the field with cans of pop to give the team a G-rated version of a champagne shower.

“A lot of these boys were wearing jerseys of teams we beat,” Weller said. “It was nice of them to come in and celebrate a win like that.”

It was a fitting farewell for both Weller and his son, who both wrapped up their Little League careers this year.

“It was an unbelievable ride,” Weller said.

Team photo:

Front L-R : Michael Niedermeyer, Jesse Lussier, Alex Conger, Hudson Feichtinger

Middle: Coach Jeff Feichtinger, Graham Bearman, Jake Davies, Jon Weller, Cooper Bearman, Will Hamilton 

Back: Coach Red Weller, Matt Sloyan, Coach Bill Sloyan, Coach Chris Conger, Coach Rich Lussier 

Missing: Nick Zinanni