DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Members of Irmo, South Carolina’s Little League team sign autographs and wave to fans during the 2025 Little League World Series Grand Slam Parade in downtown Williamsport.

Irmo, South Carolina Little Leaguers will continue making memories during a summer filled with countless ones this afternoon when they play Braintree, Massachusetts at the Little League World Series.

Whatever happens here in South Williamsport, Irmo certainly will never forget how it reached its ultimate destination. That’s because this one truly felt like a Hollywood production.

Irmo faced a monumental task when it entered the sixth inning of the Southeast championship facing a four-run deficit. The deficit was one obstacle but the opponent was another. On the field stood reigning world champion Lake Mary, Florida, a team which had bulldozed its way to a third straight regional final and that defeated Irmo, 14-0 two days earlier.

With the difficulty meter cranked as high as it could go, Irmo produced an unforgettable comeback. Irmo scored five runs, Brady Westbrooks hit a two-out, two-strike, three-run, walk-off double and stunned Lake Mary, 5-4. For the first time, Irmo was Little League World Series-bound.

“The coaches and I look at each other and sort of giggle and pinch ourselves,” Irmo manager Dave Bogan said. “I hope they remember they’re the first Irmo Little League team to go to Williamsport. Their names will be up there forever for as long as Irmo LL is in existence.”

Those names will be a testament not just to the team’s work ethic and talent, but its toughness. When it would have been so easy to give in, Irmo dug in, pulled together and delivered a comeback which had social media immediately buzzing, so many amazed by what they had just witnessed.

“It’s not just that we won, but how we won that is extremely exciting,” Irmo Little League president Bobby Jensen said. “This is one of the best times of their lives and running out on that field against the defending champions and dogpiling is something that they will never forget.

“My phone has been blowing up with text messages and Facebook messages and so many people have said, ‘I can’t stop being giddy because of the way that it happened.”

How it happened perfectly illustrated what has made Irmo so good this summer. It was each player doing his job well and it was the bottom of the order igniting the rally before passing the bat to the top. Palmer Steele started it all with a lead-off walk before Ethan Bennett followed with a walk. Brayden Gerard then loaded the bases, hitting a one-out single. Those at-bats were not just productive in terms of results but also in approach, working the pitch count and knocking ace Jacob Brown from the mound.

Still, Irmo faced a dominant left-hand reliever and was down to its last out without a run on the board. Yet it, remained cool under fire. The lineup turned over, lead-off hitter Preston Ware drew a two-out RBI walk after the first run came home on a . That brought up Joe Giulietti, a player who put together the best individual performance of any player at regionals. During states, an opponent faced a similar situation and pitched to Giulietti who walloped a go-ahead grand slam.

Lake Mary was not taking that risk and intentionally walked Giulietti, bringing in another run and putting the winning run on first. It looked like the strategy might work when Westbrooks fell behind 1-2. Instead the 12-year-old delivered the most dramatic hit in Irmo Little League history, smashing the walk-off double toward the left field wall.

Get the movie producers on the line because Irmo pulled off a comeback which felt impossible.

“The resiliency of this team is outstanding and you start that with coaches, parents and everybody letting them know how special they are,” Jensen said. “Dave reminded them to just go and play the game of baseball. Don’t put too much into what this is. The ball still has to go across the plate; they still have to catch it and field it. Go enjoy the game and that’s what we did and we were fortunate to come out on top.”

“They knew it was a tall order but the confidence was growing with each walk. I could feel it in the dugout. I think, most importantly, a couple of our team leaders said let’s get off the bench and cheer. It’s not over,” Bogan said. “To their credit, their teammates got up and on fence and were chanting and encouraging everyone. As it continued they believed and said, ‘We’re in this.'”

Irmo also could rely on past experience. It knew it could come back because it had done so before, including at regionals. Georgia took a two-run lead into the fifth inning in Irmo’s opener before the Southeast champions stormed back and won, 5-3. After taking its first loss this summer, Irmo held off Virginia to earn a spot in the final, stranding the go-ahead runners in the sixth inning.

Turn up the pressure and this team seemingly gets better each time. Knowing that, Bogan leaned on a lesson he learned from legendary high school football coach Tom Knotts as Irmo prepared for that final inning against Lake Mary.

“Tom Knotts said it’s easy to play from ahead, you have to learn to play from behind,” Bogan said. “I stole that from Tom and talked about that a few times at that tournament. We have to work from behind. It’s OK to be behind. It’s a long game and it’s a game of failure but if you keep fighting good things will happen. They responded. The resilience of this group is pretty remarkable.”

So is its depth. Every player reached base multiple times at regionals and 11 of the 12 delivered hits. All played crucial roles in those hard-fought, thrilling wins against Georgia, Virginia and Florida.

And that belief in every player shined through at the perfect time against Florida, producing a comeback for the ages.

“In Little League, we have the continuous lineup. That’s what Little league wants because they want a team of 12 to come together to get the job done and it’s interesting how it all played out,” Jensen said. “What’s amazing in watching that game is all 12 on both sides had a major role in how awesome this game was. I don’t know how they bottle that up and advertise it, but if they go into a think tank, that game right there definitely shows why Little League made the change to the continuous lineup.”

A lot will change for these 12 Irmo Little Leaguers as they grow older. They will go to different high schools and could become future opponents. Later on, they will likely go their own ways as they enter adulthood.

But wherever life takes them, they also will forever be linked. That game, this summer-long run will keep them together long after they have stopped playing baseball.

“Before they left (for regionals), I told them that you 12 are playing for each other because you’re a brotherhood now. They are going to be a brotherhood for the rest of their lives,” Jensen said. “That’s what sports do. They bring you together and this team will be together forever and they will have so much fun telling those stories about this experience as they grow older.

“That can never be taken away. It’s so powerful.”