Summerlin South has Little League World Series in sights

Mountain Ridge excited Southern Nevada in 2014 with its deep run in the Little League World Series, which resulted in being awarded the U.S. championship.

That remains the only Las Vegas-area team to make the World Series.

Now Mountain Ridge rival Summerlin South is trying to become the second team to get to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The rivalry has been put aside now that Summerlin South represents the state.

“They certainly set the bar high in ’14,” Summerlin South coach Todd Hutton said of Mountain Ridge. “What I love is they’ve got our back now, and they’ve thrown their support our way.”

The West Regional opens Sunday in San Bernardino, California.

Summerlin South and Northern California received first-day byes. On Monday, Summerlin South will play at 7 p.m. on ESPN Plus against the winner of Sunday’s game between Hawaii and Utah.

The championship game is Saturday, and unlike previous years, it’s not a winner-take-all format for a shot at the World Series. Both teams in the title game will go regardless of the outcome because there is no international field due to COVID-19.

COVID played a role in Summerlin South’s success. Many players decided to play Little League after being forced to travel to neighboring states Arizona and Utah to play during the early days of pandemic when organized sports were shut down in Nevada. The chance to lessen the travel, Hutton said, was appealing.

He also said his league has not viewed travel baseball as the enemy.

“In other leagues, you didn’t have as many kids coming back to Little League,” Hutton said. “They just didn’t have that same strong tie to the league that I think our league has. We’ve had a pretty good run in the last four of five years in our league, and I think it’s attracted kids to come back and play Little League.

“As a league, I think we’ve done a good job to embrace that we have to be open to both. Some Little Leagues have said, ‘We’re not club friendly.’ We are. We’ve made it work for the last couple of years, and I think it’s really helped our league grow.”

Now those players have their sights set on qualifying for the World Series and then playing for the title.

It’s a deep team in which bench players have delivered game-changing plays.

“I think we can compete with anybody,” Hutton said. “I don’t like to peg us as the favorites, certainly, but we’ve had a target on our backs since the beginning of this.”

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.