Pearland's been making it a tradition of sending some team to the Little League World Series. Pearland West won state on Tuesday night. They now advance to the regionals in Waco. If they win that, they'll be advancing to the Little League World Series, something that was done last year by Pearland East in 2014 and was also accomplished by Pearland's little leaguers in 2010.
The clinching victory came over Lufkin on Tuesday evening. Jarrett Tadlock drove in the game's lone run with a homer. Isaac Garcia was the winning pitcher in Pearland West's 1-0 win.
"It was just insane," Tadlock said. "It was a great feeling to win that game and to be headed to regionals. It just felt amazing to all of us."
Currently, Pearland West is on a 10-game winning streak. They've outscored their opponents 144-13 during that time. So, needless to say, they've been pretty dominant during this run. But they're not letting any of these accomplishments get to their head.
"I'm excited to play on TV in front of everybody," Garcia said. "But you try not to focus on it because you'll get distracted, so we'll just try to focus on the game."
This Pearland West team has had several years of success while working together. Now in the 12-years-and-under bracket, most of the players on the current team also won state as 10-year-olds. They had the same manager back then as they do now - Andrew Solomon.
"Getting to Waco's an incredible experience," Solomon said. "Obviously, they want to take it one step further, but they know it's one step at a time, one pitch at a time. It's incredible though."
"I think we all want it really, really badly," Tadlock said. "If we can, that's just the best, but if we can't, that's just how it goes."
The regionals, covering seven states, take place in Waco from August 7 through August 13.