Tennessee leaves Warner Robins to head to World Series

WARNER ROBINS -- The South Nashville Little League all stars will represent the Southeast at the Little League World Series.

The team, representing Tennessee, battled through the seven-day Little League Baseball Southeastern Regional Tournament to take the title, defeating Virginia 9-4 on Aug. 8 in front of a national television audience.

The trip to the regionals garners more than just a chance to be on ESPN. The players also get their moment in the spotlight.

Some of the Virginia players boasted that their individual Instagram followers had jumped triple digits after the semifinal appearance.

The Virginia team made the ESPN Top 10 Plays of the Day for both of its games, with a catch by first baseman Michael Wright in the semifinals and a catch by Bryce Safferwich in the finals. Both ended up at No. 7.

Georgia, the team represented by Columbus Northern Little League, was defeated by Virginia in the semifinals. Brent Epps, the starting pitcher for Georgia, was trending on Twitter after hitting a solo home run in the game.

The tournament featured some other notable moments.

The West Virginia team included Emily Riggs, only the second female in the Southeastern regional to pitch during a tournament game. She threw four innings and had six strikeouts during the tournament.

The teams also bonded. During the Challenger division games Aug. 3, players from all of the teams were on the field throwing balls to each other, hanging out and cutting up.

That bond didn’t break, despite the fact that seven teams would go home after being eliminated.

Georgia and Virginia watched a replay of their semifinal game at the hotel Wednesday night, Virginia manager David Ladd said.

Several of the Georgia players were on hand for the championship game.

“It’s an amazing experience,” Virginia’s Harrison Holmes said.

This story was originally published August 13, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Tennessee leaves Warner Robins to head to World Series ."