Saturday didn’t provide the storybook ending that Glen Allen’s 13-year-old all-star team had hoped for in the championship game of the 13-year-old Babe Ruth League World Series on its home field at RF&P Stadium, as the home team fell in agonizingly close fashion, 3-2 to Oahu, Hawaii.
It was the third straight year the Glen Allen Youth Athletic Association and Henrico County hosted the tournament, and all three events have been won by Hawaii teams – the last two by teams from Oahu.
For this Glen Allen team, the second-place finish (though disappointing) concluded another impressive run in World Series play. Many of the team’s players also were together for runs in previous years that resulted in second, third and seventh-place finishes in World Series events. The loss in the final Saturday was Glen Allen’s only loss in six games during the tournament – an event that saw the host team earn the top overall seed after a 3-0 record in pool play and then claw its way through the championship bracket thanks in part to a dramatic 2-1 comeback victory in its first bracket game.