CHICAGO — After sweeping four games of pool play, the Morgan Park-based Jackie Robinson West Little League team has advanced to the Great Lakes Regional semifinals in Indianapolis.
And the club's coach, Darold Butler, is confident his squad can win the regional this year — thus reaching the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. — after falling in the 2013 regional championship game.
"I really believe this year is the year for this team," Butler said Tuesday. "And I really believe they’ll get the job done on Saturday" in the championship.
But first Jackie Robinson West must beat Canfield, Ohio in Thursday's semifinals, which begin at 6 p.m. and will be aired on ESPN. Saturday's championship game, set for 1 p.m., also will be televised by ESPN.
The Illinois state champions, composed of 11- and 12-year-old ballplayers from Englewood, Morgan Park, Chatham and Auburn Gresham, went 4-0 in pool play. That included Tuesday's 15-4 victory over Canfield, which propelled Jackie Robinson West to the top spot in the six-team tournament. Jackie Robinson West outscored the opponents 36-10 in its four wins.
Jackie Robinson West is the last Chicago team to reach Little League's promised land, when its club lost in the first round of the 1983 Little League World Series.
Last year, Jackie Robinson West lost 10-3 to Michigan's Grosse Pointe Woods-Shores in the Great Lakes Regional championship game. Three players from last year's team — DJ Butler, Marquis Jackson and Darion Radcliff — are on the 2014 roster.
"Things were moving so fast, and we still found a way to get to the championship game last year," said Butler, of Morgan Park. "We just couldn’t get it done in that last game. This being my second time around, everything is a little slower. Everything is more calm."
Jackie Robinson West was founded in 1971 on the city's South Side.
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