A historic Irmo Little League season officially came to a close last week as the community came together at Friarsgate Park to honor its local baseball and softball teams. 

This summer, Irmo Little League sent four teams to a World Series. The junior softball, senior baseball, intermediate baseball and majors baseball teams all qualified to represent the Southeast Region. 

“When we do all that together as an Irmo community, this is what happens,” said Bobby Jensen, the president of Irmo Little League. “You have kids that fight every single day, down by whatever, didn’t make a difference. They fought, just like our tough fights.”

It was the first time in Little League history that one program has sent four different teams to a World Series in the same year, according to Jenn von Ahn, the director of baseball operations for Irmo Little League.

Each team advanced through the postseason by capturing gritty wins over other talented competition. They traveled to all corners of the country with the softball team playing in Washington, the intermediates in California, the majors in Pennsylvania and the seniors nearby in Easley.

While all four teams got their moments

to shine, it was the majors out in Pennsylvania that captured the hearts of the state with their games broadcast nationally on ESPN. 

The Majors World Series is what most people think of when they hear Little League World Series. Every year, it is an international event that draws millions of viewers. 

Before this year, only three other teams from South Carolina had ever made the event. Irmo not only became the fourth, but also became the most successful, finishing tied for fifth in the world. 

“I’m speechless in terms of what it means to me,” head coach Dave Bogan said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think we were going to get there.”

From his team’s earliest days together to his viral “believe” speech, Bogan reflected on the journey his group went on and shared his hopes for what they gained from the experience. 

“I told them that they needed really to use this as a building block, that their baseball and athletic journeys aren't over,” Bogan said. “They have travel ball, they have high school baseball. I think we represent five or six different high schools in the area, and as they get older, they've gotta continue to work and build on this.”

The softball, intermediate and senior teams also had strong runs. 

The senior team is used to playing deep in the postseason, having won six of the past seven South Carolina state championships. It was the third year in a row the team qualified for the World Series. 

Irmo advanced to the Senior U.S. championship game before ironically getting knocked out by the host team from South Carolina.

The intermediate team became the first from South Carolina to qualify for that age group’s World Series. Irmo won its first two games of bracket play before losing in the U.S. semis. 

Junior softball made its second appearance at the World Series in Kirkland, Washington. The team went 3-1 with large wins in pool play to qualify for bracket play. Irmo lost in its first elimination game to the team from the East Region, finishing top eight in the world. 

“Watching those girls play was unbelievable,” Irmo mayor Bill Danielson said. “It was literally thrilling.”

Danielson was a big supporter of the teams from Irmo this season and personally attended every junior softball regional game at Friarsgate Park.

While the celebration was thrown to honor the players and coaches’ achievements, it was also an opportunity to recognize parents, business partners and community members who helped make this success possible. 

“There’s a couple of things that we have to have to be the league we are. One is volunteers and two is community, but the third one is businesses that help support us,” Jensen said. “There’s a lot of businesses that helped support us and a lot of volunteers that spent hours and hours out here.”

The summer season may be over, but Irmo Little League is gearing up for an exciting fall season. Then once that’s over, it’s almost time for Spring sign-ups and preparations for next year’s summer postseason. 

“I will tell you this, I promise you when spring registration comes out in December, you'd better sign up really quickly because I got a feeling the spots are going to fill up fast this year,” Jensen said.