A striking photo has circulated of the three Bowlen players, Cooper Hastings, Jett Matthews and Gray Collins, beaming with smiles and bright eyes after another big win at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
What's striking about this photo isn't the composition or the colors, but the age of the players: The boys are 5 years old, and two of them have lost their baby teeth. In the summer of 2017, they were Bowen Little League T-ball champions.
On Saturday, they hope to become U.S. Little League champions.
No San Antonio-area team has ever won a title or advanced to Sunday's World Series final.
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On Saturday, Hastings, Matthews, Collins and their nine Borne teammates will make history at 2:30 p.m., when they face Florida, the team they beat early last week, 4-1.
The T-ball kids in grey shirts all play on the LLWS Bohne Little League team. Left to right: Gray Collins, Cole Koenen, Cooper Hastings and Jett Matthews. Credit: Courtesy of the Hastings family.
The Bourne All-Stars, known in the tournament as Texas, are 3-0 in the LLWS and 17-0 in the postseason. “We want to finish the summer 19-0,” Bourne ace Julian Hurst told ESPN after Wednesday's 5-2 win over Nevada.
The core members of the team have been playing together for years, some since kindergarten.
Hurst, Gage Stuebing, Ben Burkhart and Dylan Burke all played for various Little League teams during their elementary school years, while Hastings, Matthews and Collins won championships before their first grade years.
“Of our 12 kids, I'd say seven or eight of them have been playing together since they were 4 or 5 years old,” said Cooper's father, Rusty Hastings. “The parents all bring in old photos. They were all kids once upon a time, and now they've grown into pretty good baseball players.”
How good are they? The Bohne All-Stars are the only undefeated team in the United States. In three games, the men's team has outscored their opponents 18-3 with one error. Each game seems to feature a different player. Cole Newson hit a grand slam in a 9-0 win over Pennsylvania. Hurst had a 10 strikeout, three-hit win over Florida. Cooper Hastings had two RBIs and pitched four shutout innings, allowing just one hit, in a 5-2 win over Nevada as a relief pitcher.
“They just keep winning,” said Gage's father, Dru Stubing, “and we just keep going to the next hotel room.”
Players and parents understand the challenges of history: Only one team from Texas has won the LLWS, Houston in 1966. The last time a San Antonio-area team reached the national championship game was at McAllister Park in 2009.
“Bone never left Texas,” Rusty Hastings said.
Julian Hurst, 15, slides into home plate during a 3-2 win against Nevada's Paseo Verde Little League. Photo courtesy of Little League Baseball and Softball
The All-Stars had never seen a place like Williamsport. The city put them in parades. State legislators invited them to dinner at their homes. The boys stayed in dorms and spent their time playing video games and wiffle ball. They had meet-and-greets with the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers. After games, little kids surrounded the All-Stars asking for autographs.
“It's a little surreal,” Gage's mother, Jessica Stubing, said, “but it's also super exciting.”
The LLWS is big business in Williamsport, pumping an estimated $40 million a year into the local economy. Fans stream into Lamade Stadium, filling the steep grass slope behind the outfield wall. Parents estimate that Wednesday's game drew a crowd equal to half Boerne's population, about 20,000 people. Attendance for the national championship is expected to be between 30,000 and 40,000.
“This town is built around this tournament,” Dru Steubing said, “and you can see all the fire hydrants painted in the colors of the local teams. That's their landmark.”
Gage Stubing (center) and his parents, Drew and Jessica Stubing, attend the Little League World Series. Photo courtesy of the Stubing family.
LLWS put the spotlight on Boerne, raising his profile in the community.
ESPN interviewed parents during games to profile players and tout their athleticism. To show Gage's speed, the camera followed him as he ran from first base to home plate, and the announcer asked if he could do it in under 10 seconds. The timer showed that Gage did it in under 10 seconds. “He's always been fast,” Drew Stubing said.
Bohne is in a frenzy. Family and friends are flying in for Saturday's championship game, including at least one Bohne school administrator. People are clamoring for tickets. Watch parties are popping up all over town, with one party advertising “Margaritas and Nachos for $5!”
“The support locally has been incredible,” Drew Stubing said. “People are taking videos of the games and sharing them. Schools are having watch parties.”
ESPN. Social media. Community meetups. “The kids feel like they're celebrities,” Rusty says.
Not able to attend is Cooper's sister, Cadence Hastings, who has spinal muscular atrophy, a rare neuromuscular disease that causes muscles to waste away. The siblings are close, and Cooper has said that if he won the lottery, he would donate all of his winnings to research for a cure.
“It's a progressive disease and it gets worse over time,” Rusty Hastings said. “She can still walk, but she may not be able to walk in the future. But she's doing well. She gets all A's and is living a really good life. School starts on Friday so she can't come here. We're keeping an eye on her at home.”
Cooper Hastings holds his cousin Jace and his sister Cadence, 15. Photo courtesy of the Hastings family.
Cooper and his teammates are off school. They had to drop out before LLWS to avoid excessive absences, but plan to re-enroll upon their return. Roughly half of the team attends Voss Middle School and the other half attends Bohne Middle School South.
In a few years, they will all be playing at Bohne Champion High School, and the coaches can't wait.
What began in tee-ball and grade school has reached the world stage, where old photos evoke nostalgia and ESPN cameras bring wonder. “You can dream,” Drew Steubing says, “but it's hard to believe this is happening.”
