From There to Here

And they thought getting beat with a walk-off homerun in the eighth inning (that’s the SECOND extra inning) of the Little League World Series was bad.

Dalton Carriker, who was hitting .769! entering Sunday’s game, hits a walk-off home run in one of the most exciting baseball games of the year yesterday. Not Little League Baseball games, but baseball games. Period. Georgia wins, beating Tokyo 3-2 in extra innings. While I obviously was rooting for the American team (go USA!), seeing the pictures of the kids from Tokyo crying sucks. To see kids do so well, play so hard and then feel that bad — it’s rough.

But not as rough as escaping from a burning bus, which the team from Japan had to do early this morning after such an emotional defeat yesterday.

LEWISBURG, Pa. –A bus carrying two Asian teams leaving the Little League World Series caught fire early Monday, but the children escaped safely.

The bus was carrying the second-place team from Japan and a team from Taipei when it caught fire near Bucknell University after leaving South Williamsport at 6 a.m., Susquehanna Trailways spokeswoman Amy Brooks said.

The teams and their chaperones got off the bus on U.S. Route 15 and the driver called the fire department, Brooks said.

The fire probably started in the engine compartment and heavily damaged the rear of the vehicle, the William Cameron Engine Company said in a statement.

Another Susquehanna Trailways bus arrived to take the teams to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Little League spokesman Lance Van Auken said.

Now that’s just really tough, but at least all the kids are safe. Seriously though, I can’t imagine a worse 36-hour period? That’s just really some awful, awful luck.