Appleton Firefighters couldn’t put out a fire in the final inning, opening the door for an epic come-from-behind win for American Overhead Door on June 25 in the Appleton Little League Major Baseball city championship game.
Two-time defending champion American Overhead Door trailed 7-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning on Gromer Field at USA Youth Sports Complex, three outs away from seeing its title reign end.
American Overhead Door improbably sent 11 batters to the plate, with the first eight reaching, and scored seven runs to pull out an 8-7 walk-off victory and win the city championship for the third year in a row under manager Bill Bowers.
“That’s kind of what the kids did all year,” Bowers said. “In the last two years, I had a lot of experienced players. This one, we had five or six new players. But they all hung together and they always think they could win every game and, somehow, we scored seven runs.”
The championship game began Wednesday, June 24, with Appleton Firefighters leading 2-0 in the bottom of the third inning when the game was suspended by weather and moved to the next night.
When the game resumed, American Overhead Door scored a run in the bottom of the third, but Appleton Firefighters added two runs in the top of the fourth inning and three in the top of the fifth and was seemingly cruising to the win with a 7-1 lead.
American Overhead Door had the top of its batting order up to start the bottom of the sixth inning.
After a leadoff walk and a passed ball, Elijah Bowers singled to center field to bring home the first run. Ben Burroughs followed with a single. After a wild pitch, Will Schraufnagel brought home a run with an infield single to make it 7-3.
After a pitching change, Preston Justinger brought home two runs with a single to make it 7-5. Riley Pinkham then blooped a double into shallow right field, putting runners on second and third.
Roman Knox reached on catcher’s interference to load the bases with no outs, then Chad Schweitzer hit a slow roller toward third for an infield hit to bring home a run to make it 7-6 with the bases still full.
After a strikeout for the first out, Henry Kallies hit a pop up just barely on to the outfield grass at second base for the second out, but Pinkham raced home from third to score the tying run.
Elijah Bowers was next and he lined a smash to center field for a hit – his second of the inning and third in the game – with Knox scoring from second base with the winning run and the victory.
“I’m really excited,” Elijah said. “We believed we could still have a chance of winning it, and we did end up winning it.”
Asked if he was nervous coming up to bat with the game on the line, Elijah said: “A little bit, but I believed I could hit that.”
His dad was watching intently from the third base coaching box.
“I was hoping his leg was all right, because he got hit by the ball at first base [earlier in the inning],” Bill Bowers said. “He’s been practicing since January and playing [since he was] 6 years old, so I wasn’t too worried. And it was 7-7, so I didn’t have to worry as much.”
American Overhead Door, which defeated JD’s Drive In 5-2 in the championship game last year and beat Appleton Police 11-2 in the title game in 2024, had its sights set on a three-peat all season.
“Oh yeah, they knew it,” Bill Bowers said. “Our whole goal was to win it all. They thought they could win it all. … They worked hard. They practiced hard, they played hard, and they were good teammates. So it was a good bunch of kids and it was a nice way for them to win.”
Sawyer Stanley and Breck Maves both had two hits for Appleton Firefighters. Hudson Rose had an RBI double in the first inning, Jamison Caskey had an RBI single in the fifth inning and Henry Denneau hit a triple to right-center in the sixth inning.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: American Overhead Door rallies for Little League city championship
Reporting by Mike Sherry, Appleton Post-Crescent / Appleton Post-Crescent
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mike Sherry, Appleton Post-Crescent | USA TODAY Network
