PEARLAND, Texas – The city of Pearland united in celebration of the Pearland Little League team’s return from their World Series run Thursday night.
“We are so proud of these young men. They are the best ambassadors that our city could ever do and they were on the national stage, the world stage,” Mayor Kevin Cole said. “7,000 teams around the world start this trek. 20 make it to Williamsport. We finished in the top 6 in the world. That’s a pretty impressive deal. People are pretty impressed with the way they conducted themselves, who wouldn’t be proud of that and that’s what we want to celebrate tonight.”
The mayor proclaimed the day Pearland Little League Day for the city of Pearland during the event at Independence Park.
“We just hope it just is an inspiration to a lot of these young kids in the community that more and more kids will play Pearland Little League, that it will just give them something to shoot for and goals to go after,” said Pearland Little League Manager Aaron Cummings.
Since the team returned on Sunday, many have been recognized in the community and at school as the All Stars from Pearland.
During Thursday’s welcome home party, the players and coaches took questions from former pro pitcher and Pearland native Clay Hensley.
“These guys right here, I can tell you right now, are top notch,” he said. “You’re showing these younger kids that are right before you how to play the game the right way and I appreciate you guys playing the game the right way.”
The 12-year-olds are back in school this week and some of them have started football practice.
“We had a lot but I think this kind of put the cherry on top,” said Manny Castillo, one of the team’s World Series homerun hitters.
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