Lynner enjoying Little League World Series

Saturday night, Little League World Series pitching coach Matt Wright, a Lynn native, gave a “behind-the-scenes” look at the Cumberland (RI) team’s preparation for its world-wide televised games in the 68th Little League World Series.”We arrived in Williamsport last Sunday, and immediately had to obtain credentials,” said Wright, whose son Brendan plays for Cumberland. “The excited players and coaches received specially-made World Series uniforms and caps that had NE (for New England) on the cap front.”Monday was full of media interviews, doing ESPN commercials and promos as well as players receiving new bats, cleats, helmets and bat bags from Easton and Oakley sunglasses.”Wednesday was washed out from rain all day. No practices were allowed, so the players and coaches from most teams hung out in the recreation room and played Ping-Pong and video games.”Thursday we had three separate one-hour practices, one on the field for defense and two hours in the batting cage.”Cumberland played its first game Friday against Pearland, Texas.”We had practice for an hour in the morning and 44 minutes batting in the cage before the game,” Wright said. “As you know, we lost 6-4 to the excellent Southwest Region team. We made a few errors early that hurt us and allowed them to jump out to a lead, but we battled back and almost won it at the end with a possible game-ending home run. But the long drive was caught in deep centerfield.”Saturday was a must-win game as we faced elimination against Nashville, Tennessee,” Wright said. “The game turned out to be a classic. It was a back and forth game early, but we held the lead 5-2 going into the 6th. Nashville got a couple runners on and then hit a couple of home runs to take a 7-5 lead. But we didn’t give up, of course.”In the bottom of the sixth, we got a pair of singles and a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third with one out. After a clutch RBI single that cut the score to 7-6, the tension built. A groundout to short put Cumberland runners on second and third, but we were down to our last out.”In dramatic fashion, our pitcher, who was just taken off the mound, stroked a sinking line drive to left center that the centerfielder dove for, missed, and the ball rolled all the way back to the fence in left. Our two runners ran as fast as they could and scored for a walk-off 8-7 victory. Luckily, we had a day off Sunday, and we are now ready for tonight’s game at 8 p.m.”We are grateful for the Item coverage and thank North Shore area fans and friends who are rooting for us.”