“I want to get to regionals,” Madden said. “I think we’re really good. It was just a great game.”
West Side overcame a 3-0 deficit to beat New Albany 8-5 in the Ohio Little League state tournament at the Field of Dreams in Boardman.
“The mindset was to just keep calm and stay focused,” Madden said. “We just had to have teamwork and not get down on ourselves — just keep getting up. That’s all we had to do.”
West Side (5-0) advances to the state championship game on Thursday at noon in Boardman.
West Side will have to wait for the loser’s bracket to play out. Boardman faces Bellevue on Tuesday, and the winner of that game plays New Albany on Wednesday to set up the title game against West Side.
“I’m relieved,” West Side manager Ken Coomer said of how he felt after Monday’s game. “That was definitely a great effort after being down by three. Our kids showed a lot of fight.
“We really haven’t experienced anything like that as a team. It’s encouraging that our team was able to fight back and was able to win.”
West Side has 21 state titles and made trips to the Little League World Series in 1991, 1993, 2007, 2010 and 2021.
The state tournament winner advances to the Great Lakes Regional, which takes place Aug. 2-6 in Whitestown, Indiana. West Side was eliminated from last year’s regional tournament when its comeback fell short against Jasper (Ind.) in a 4-3 loss.
The Little League World Series is Aug. 13-24 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
“This is awesome,” Madden said. “It’s all just about teamwork and faith in God. It’s all great. All of our teammates are just so nice.”
West Side gave up three runs in the bottom of the first before gradually mounting its comeback Monday.
“Our kids were OK,” Coomer said. “It was a bad first inning. Things happen sometimes, and you can’t be perfect. These are 12-year-old boys.
“We got in the dugout and had a nice talk with them. They seemed all pretty level-headed. They battled. From there, they kept on fighting.”
Cash Jones singled with one out in the top of the second, and Jonathan Lineback reached on a fielder’s choice that got Jones to third. Boone Treadway’s sac fly scored Jones to put West Side on the board.
Teegan Lay singled, and Lennox Brown’s sac bunt moved Lay to second in the top of the third. Bobby Frazier grounded out to second, which advanced Lay to third. Lay scored on a wild pitch, cutting West Side’s deficit to 3-2.
New Albany scratched a two-out run across the plate to up New Albany’s lead to 4-2 in the bottom half of the third.
That’s when West Side scored six straight runs over the next three innings — highlighted by Madden’s RBI single in the fourth and two-RBI double in the sixth.
“TJ is a hard worker,” Coomer said. “He’s got an engine that doesn’t stop. Sometimes you’ve got to calm them down a little bit — take a couple breaths. He’s growing up a lot these last couple months. He’s a great kid.”
West Side starting pitcher Jordan Malloy went 3 1/3 innings, allowed three runs on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
Anthony Saurber came in to relieve Malloy and got West Side out of a jam in the bottom of the fourth.
A pair of wild pitches allowed Lineback and Lay to score — which gave West Side its first lead at 5-4 in the fifth.
Madden roped his two-RBI double, and Saurber scored on a wild pitch to put West Side up 8-4 in the top of the sixth.
“The swing wasn’t what I was going for. I just had to control it and tone it down a little bit. I got it just off the bat,” said Madden, who went 2-for-3 with three RBIs. “I thought it was going to be an out. Then I hustled, just kept my head down and ran. I didn’t know that it was going to go fair. But I just tried to hit it.”
New Albany threatened in the bottom of the sixth but only scored one run before Preston Baker closed it out on the mound for West Side.
“Our coaches said that this was a really great challenge for us, and this is what we’re going to face in different games when we get farther,” Madden said. “But we’re just ready.”
Madden said he and his West Side teammates won’t be taking any days off despite not playing until Thursday’s championship game.
“We’re just going to practice every day — maybe two or three times,” said Madden, who plays center field and bats cleanup. “We’re just going to keep on getting the words in — keep grinding and maybe get in some BP.”
West Side has outscored its five postseason tournament opponents 69-9 and has 49 total hits.
“Don’t get me wrong, I wish we’d win every game by 15 runs,” Coomer said. “But, if we want to get where we want to get, we need to go through some adversity.”
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