SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, PA – It’s a dreaded conundrum for a coach but one that also can be lots of fun.
The team from Hamilton, Ohio, had a 7 p.m. ET game Wednesday, Aug. 26, in which it eliminated Phenix City, Alabama, from the Little League World Series. Their next game at Lamade Stadium was Thursday at 9 a.m. ET, a game moved up earlier in the day due to avoid potential weather issues.
“We never did really determine the time we went to bed,” Ohio coach Tim Nichting said after his team beat (Davenport) Iowa 7-1 Thursday to advance to the U.S. final. “My best guess, they probably fell asleep around 11:30.”
But the night before, as his players updated the bracket behind the main stadium here, he found their moms and dads before everyone took the walk
up the hill to the dormitories.
“We're smart, I guess, about this a little bit,” Nichting said. “I made parents go to the concession stand, buy all their kids food so they could eat it on the way up.”
He says he’s been doing this for 43 years, starting by coaching kids at his father’s side. According to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, he has been to the Series a U.S. record five times.
His perspective on being there with these kids has been unfiltered and emotional as his team has gone 5-1 to reach Saturday’s U.S. championship against (Henderson) Nevada.
“You made me cry with that one,” he said. “I'm proud. Proud of my kids, proud of Hamilton …
“I know that at home, everything's crazy. I hate to say it that way … all the places are packing up, watching … I've hit the peak, right? This is crazy for me. I think it's crazy for my kids. I think it's crazy for Hamilton, but I work hard, I make my kids work hard. It ain’t like we don't deserve it. It ain't like they cut any brakes, they get away with anything, we all work hard, don't we?
The three Hamilton players seated next to him at the press conference nodded. Nichting made sure they all had a chance to answer reporters’ questions, directing them to specific players and filling in gaps for clarification.
He was giving their responses affirmation and reassurance.
“Go ahead, Walker,” he said to pitcher/second baseman Walker Osborne. “What do you think about batting first and scoring runs?”
“I just like getting a lead first and then having our pitcher get confident enough to know we're ahead, and they can throw strikes and have our defense work,” Osborne said.
Batting first as the visitor Thursday, Aug. 27 against (Davenport) Iowa from the Midwest Region in the U.S. semifinals, Ohio, representing the Great Lakes Region, ticked off four runs. The big blow was Bob Frazier’s bases-clearing triple to stakes his team to a 4-0 lead.
But Osborne allowed a double and walk in the bottom of the first inning. He said he didn’t feel like everything was working for him.
“Did that make you nervous or anything out there?
“No,” Osborne said.
“Walker throws strikes,” Nichting said. “Walker's not one of my overpowering guys. They move the ball off of him. I like that, keeps my defense involved, keeps his pitch count down.
“These two,” he said, pointing to Osborne and Frazier, “played on my regular season Little League, so I got all the confidence in the world in these two. They battle, they'll go at it all with all their heart, and Walker's a tough dude, and he paints the corner, and he gets his curveball going, he's a tough guy to hit.”
Osborne knew he could lean on his defense, which can free a pitcher’s mind. He got two flyouts and a groundout. He gained confidence getting through the next two innings despite allowing a couple more walks. But no runs.
After pitching 2⅔ innings up to this point in the Little League World Series, he threw an 86-pitch complete game, allowing one run and three hits. He walked three and struck out four.
“I got a rhythm, and then I started feeling good,” he says.
His teammate, center fielder Bryson Williams, who was also sitting next to him, had two hits and scored two runs after going 3-for-4 with a run scored in the previous night’s 11-2 romp over Alabama.
“Bryson could get a hit every time he wanted, if he'd just get that bunt down like he did today,” Tim Nichting said, invoking laughter from his players. “Because he can run, and he's got a really good touch for getting that bunt down just like he did today.”
Their American championship against Nevada is not until 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday, after Curaçao plays Japan in the international championship. It beats 9 a.m. Or does it?
“I haven't won a coin flip yet; I think it's rigged,” Nichting said. “I think they rig it here, but I haven't won a flip yet. I don't even care if I win now. I hope they want to take home, because we like (being) at that base side. I don't have far to walk to third base, and we've always liked batting first. … I would take home, but right now, we're just stuck at third base, and we're happy with it.”
The last time they faced Nevada, on Aug. 21, they were visitors and had a 5-0 lead and wound up losing 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth.
It was their first game here and they haven’t lost since, winning five in a row.
“We liked facing them the first time,” the coach said. “I mean, we're up 5-2 after four innings. I felt like we kind of made a couple miscues, and obviously, it'll be a little different. I have a couple pitchers ready to go. We look at Boone (Treadway) as our ace, and we'll have to battle. I mean, they'll be fully loaded, no doubt about it, but we battled with them already. We put up some runs. We just gotta work hard, probably speed our bats up a little bit. But we'll battle. We'll be there.”
The players see it as a personal challenge. Frazier, the right fielder, said they made many mental mistakes. Williams, the center fielder, indicated they were overconfident.
Their coach? Well, after that loss, he had another excuse to tease them.
“We tell them, 'Hey, school Monday,' or whatever day it is, you guys gonna be back at school tomorrow; it’ll be fun to be at school,” he said. “They kind of get a little antsy at that. They go, 'Oh, no,' and so we play games with them.”
As far as the game plan, it’s pretty simple: Jump out to a lead, throw strikes, and play with the assurance you feel from your coach and the pride you feel from the home front.
“You're making Hamilton proud,” Nichting said. “My phone just, as you were talking to me, I can just feel it buzzing at least 20 times. It's just crazy. They're all (excited), and then they'll put videos out there on Facebook. They're at Shooters or wherever, just going wild, and I'm sure 9 o'clock in the morning was a little early for 'em. We kind of liked that 7 o'clock prime time, didn't we? They ruined that for us, didn't they?”
Perhaps, but the end result was pretty sweet.
Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He played baseball in high school, rowed in college and spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents to a college and high school baseball player. His Coach Steve column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Early morning after night game? No problem if you're Ohio's LLWS coach
