The Clarendon Hills Little League team continued its magical summer run Wednesday when it earned its first berth in the Little League World Series by beating Ohio, 9-4, in the Great Lakes Region championship game.
The Aug. 13-24 World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, includes 10 teams from various regions of the United States, and an additional 10 from around the world.
Clarendon Hills has its first game in the double-elimination competition scheduled for 1 p.m. Aug. 13 against the winner of the Mountain Region.
“We think we’re good enough to go further than the first two games,” Clarendon Hills manager Brian Herold said Wednesday night. “We’re just going to reinforce what got us here when we get (to the World Series). Our defense is definitely a big strength for us, and we have very good pitching depth, which is important because we’ll need a lot of arms (because of pitch count limits). Our pitchers will need to throw strikes.”
Herold’s son, Brody, who is the shortstop when he’s not pitching, said his team isn’t going to Williamsport just to be there.
“I want to win all the games we can,” he said. “I knew since June 1, our first practice, that we could get here.”
Teammate Jack Kaczmarski agreed.
“I thought from the beginning that we could do this,” he said. “We’ve put a lot of effort into this, and it’s such a blessing to make it.”
Another Clarendon Hills player, Jack O’Malley, certainly spoke for his entire team when asked how it feels to have qualified for the Little League World Series.
“It feels great, it’s amazing,” he said. “We’re really pumped up for this.”
Clarendon Hills started its summer run with a district title and its first state championship to advance to the Great Lakes Region tournament in Whitestown, Indiana, along with state champions from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky.
A come-from-behind, 4-3, win Aug. 2 over Indiana, which included Clarendon Hills turning a triple play, advanced the team to a winners bracket game Monday against an Ohio team that had won its first two games by a combined score of 15-0.
Ohio didn’t slow down in that first game against Clarendon Hills, beating the local team, 11-0. But Clarendon Hills came back Tuesday to defeat Kentucky 5-2 in an elimination game and earn another crack at Ohio in the championship contest.
Clarendon Hills took a quick, 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, something Brian Herold said was a big key for his team.
“It was huge to score two runs early and get the lead like that,” he said. “Our kids were confident going into the game, and those two runs in the first inning helped propel them to another level.”
Brody Herold said the initial loss to Ohio made him “mad” and very ready for some revenge.
“They thought they could beat us, but we were still confident,” he said.
Clarendon Hills’ advancement to the Little League World Series comes just a year after Hinsdale made its first appearance there. Hinsdale lost both of its games in that tournament.
Players on the 2025 Clarendon Hills team are Brody Herold, Jack Kaczmarski, Matthew Kalish, Christian Gernot, Connor Lazar, Sean Bolger, Jack O’Malley, Liam Harrigan, Luca Striltschuk, Hudson Lauerman, Luke Schaller, and Henry McMahon.
Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
