Team of destiny? Taney wins on dramatic walk
Team of destiny? Taney wins on dramatic walk-off
Tai Shanahan is mobbed at first base by his Taney teammates after knocking in the game-winning run. (AP) 
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- The Taney Dragons never believed they were going to lose.Even when they gave up the lead. Even when outfielder Zion Spearman committed the team's first error of the tournament. Even when they trailed heading into the final inning Sunday night, the Dragons remained upbeat.And thanks to Zion Spearman's game-tying triple and Tai Shanahan's walk-off grounder, they're now just two wins away from a berth in the Little League World Series championship game after beating Texas' Pearland East, 7-6, on Sunday night.Are they a team of destiny?Spearman, who scored the winning run when Shanahan reached on an errant throw in the bottom of the sixth -- the final inning in Little League -- believes it.'I think so,' Spearman said. 'Because we worked very hard.'Taney manager Alex Rice was a little more humble, albeit proud of his team, which has become an overnight sensation in Philadelphia.'It takes an enormous amount of luck to get where we are,' Rice said. 'But I picked 12 kids for this team who are made of the right stuff and character, and you just see it night after night. It comes from someone from somewhere, night after night.'Yeah, there's plenty of opportunity for us not to be here, tonight for one. I don't know about destiny; I'm very baseball superstitious. But I think they earned it, and a little bit of good luck has gotten us here.'Pitcher Mo'ne Davis has stolen headlines since before the Dragons even arrived at Lamade Stadium, but the team is so much more than just its star female pitcher. Jared Sprague-Lott started on the mound Sunday night and was solid through four innings. Spearman, Shanahan and catcher Scott Bandura stole the show late with timely hits.Taney's new-to-the-scene fans don't know it yet, but the Dragons are a deep team. Come-from-behind wins are nothing new. They've had confidence in themselves all along.'Like coach Alex was saying, it comes from a different place every day,' Bandura said. 'We're a solid team. Anybody can come through at any time.'As they did in their first win of the tournament, Friday over South Nashville, the Dragons took the early lead. But unlike Friday, they couldn't hold onto it, giving up four runs in the fifth inning.There were tense moments even before they sacrificed the lead, too -- perhaps none more so than when Rice's son Jack was violently tagged by Texas' pitcher Clayton Broeder as he approached home plate. Rice left the game with a bad cut in his mouth, but he's OK and can play in Taney's next game, his father said.'I saw the play and I saw him get hit in the face,' Rice said. 'But I also saw that he didn't hit his head on the ground, so I knew in my heart he was fine. It was a good shot, of course I don't like to see it, but it's baseball, I guess.'And it was baseball that none of the players -- or the scores of fans who trekked in from Philadelphia to see them -- will forget anytime soon. The Dragons played in front of a crowd of 32,148 Sunday night, and an overwhelming majority of them wore Taney's blue.The cheers were loud all night but became deafening when Pearland East's shortstop committed the error that sealed Taney's fate. The Dragons move on to face Las Vegas (West) on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.The support was exciting, the players said, but also overwhelming. Spearman said he feared letting his fans down.'I thought it was cool,' he said. 'But it was also kind of nerve-wracking, especially when you're hitting in such a good position. When everyone else is cheering for you and hoping you can do everything you can, it's kind of hard to let them down. You just have to do your best.'That's what the Dragons have been trained to do. They might not be the flashiest team, or the most experienced, but they've been well-coached. That's apparent every time they take the field.This week is what they've been preparing for all along.'I remember I was reading something that said luck is a combination of opportunity and preparation,' Shanahan said. 'I think we prepared hard enough and we had the opportunity to get where we are.'And where they are, here in northeastern Pennsylvania, they have no idea just how hard the fans back home are rooting for them. All they know is they just accomplished quite a feat on the biggest stage of their young careers.'Pretty exciting,' Rice said with a smile. 'Wasn't it?'
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