Believe.
Irmo coach Dave Bogan implored his team with those seven letters. They huddled together, perhaps for the last time, on the field in South Williamsport, Pa.
In the top of the seventh inning on Aug. 20, the Midlands team that is representing the Southeast in the Little League World Series gave up five runs. The scoreboard read 6-1 in favor of the kids from South Dakota. Three outs from a second tournament loss and a long trip home to South Carolina.
Believe, Bogan implored.
Seven letters.
“I’m a big Ted Lasso fan, so ‘believe’ is a big one to me,” he later said in a post-game interview, referencing the Emmy-winning Apple TV series.
The word plays a central theme in the show about the fictitious British soccer team, AFC Richmond. A yellow sign with “Believe” scrawled in blue ink hangs in the team’s locker room.
“I believe in hope. I believe in believe,” Lasso, the coach played by actor Jason Sudeikis, said in the show.
Back at Howard J. Lamade Stadium in the middle of Pennsylvania, Bogan tapped his inner-Lasso.
“We’ve got to believe right now,” Bogan told his boys Aug. 20. “It’s a great TV show, and you should watch it someday. It’s not a word. Listen. Believe. Believe, alright? Let’s go. We can hit this kid, and we can hit him hard. Let’s believe, OK.”
As Bogan turned away, assistant coach Mike Beckworth huddled the team closer together.
“Believe, right here. Ready? One, two, three,” Beckworth said.
Thrusting their hands in the middle, the team repeated the mantra. “Believe.”
What came next was another seven-letter word: Miracle.
And that was nothing new for this team that has been running on talent, support and believing in themselves — even when all the stars in the universe seemed to line up against this improbable run.
The first iteration came two weeks earlier in another against-all-odds moment down to their last out against the defending world champs.
Staring at a 4-0 deficit to Lake Mary, Fla., a rare trip to Pennsylvania for a team from South Carolina seemed all but dashed.
Several plays had not gone their way. Players looked dejected. Their body language screamed anything but belief — in themselves or a chance to win.
Bogan called timeout and walked to the mound. With his team gathered, he delivered his message.
“It’s time to grow up,” he said.
Finish plays, find better body language. Hammer the strike zone. Find a way to score some runs.
“Then let’s get Skittles after the game,” Bogan said. “Let’s go.”
Irmo got the out and then up for their final at bat. Soon, they were down to their last out and still down 4-0 — though with the bases loaded. Lake Mary walked in two runs, including one intentionally to avoid Irmo’s best player: Joe Giulietti.
The scoreboard read 4-2.
Two outs.
Two strikes.
Instead of coronating Florida, Brady Westbrooks whipped the bat through the zone and cranked the ball to the left-field wall, clearing the bases in a storybook 5-4 win and a comeback for the ages.
South Carolina punched its ticket to the Little League World Series.
After beating New England 13-0 in its first game, Irmo dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to Nevada and fell to the elimination bracket. Another loss, and the fairytale ends.
A 3-0 win over Hawaii set up the game against the team from Sioux Falls, S.D.
Down 1-0, Irmo scored a run on a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the sixth inning. The score was tie 1-1 and headed to an extra inning.
That’s where it all seemed to fall apart.
South Dakota scored one run, then another. And another. And another. And another. 1-1 went to 6-1 in a matter of minutes.
Then Bogan delivered his message.
Believe.
Sutton Gravelle and Brayden Gerard drove in runs, cutting the score to 6-3. Another bases-loaded walk cut the deficit to 6-4. Another walk made it 6-5.
Up to the plate came Andrew Bogan, the coach’s son.
With the count 0-2, he sliced a drive down the right field line, just past the outstretched glove of a diving right fielder. The tying run crossed the plate, followed closely by the one to win it.
“WE BELIEVE!!!! Irmo Little League!!!!,” the Lexington County Blowfish, a summer collegiate baseball team, posted to Facebook. “What a game and epic comeback 7-6 win in extra innings! As Harry Caray would say, "Holy Cow!”
“The Real-Life Ted Lasso — South Carolina doesn’t need to stream Ted Lasso — they’ve got their own version standing in the dugout,” a post read. “Down by five runs to South Dakota in an elimination game at the Little League World Series, things looked grim. The kind of grim where moms chew through their nails, dads pace the concourse, and kids in the stands start looking for snow cones instead of rally caps.
“But Coach… well, Coach didn’t panic. He gathered his boys, looked them in the eye, and talked not about exit velocity or scouting reports, but about a TV show. Ted Lasso. He told them what Ted tells AFC Richmond: you’ve got to believe. Not in miracles falling out of the sky, but in yourselves, in each other, in the game that brought you here. And then it happened.
“Believe? In IRMO, they don’t just hang that word on a crooked sign. They live it.”
The team representing the Southeast earned a rematch against Nevada. First pitch is 7 p.m. Aug. 21 on ESPN. The winner moves on to the U.S. championship game against the team from Connecticut.