DES MOINES — It’s as close as Ottumwa has come in over 40 years to winning a Little League state championship.
If this summer was any indication, it may not be much longer until that drought comes to an end.
Ottumwa’s nine-year-old baseball squad finished out a summer to remember battling on of the state’s perennial powers over the course of the final two days at the Iowa State Little League Baseball Tournament. Drew Goldsmith’s three-run home run on Friday helped lift Ottumwa to a 5-4 win over Davenport Southeast in the final game of pool play, lifting Ottumwa to 16-0 on the season.
Davenport Southeast, however, won Saturday’s state championship rematch. After narrowly avoiding giving up the lead in the bottom of the fifth, Kade Grobensich delivered a clutch two-run single with two outs in the sixth to help Southeast clinch a 6-3 win, preventing from winning its first state championship since 1984.
“That’s baseball. Sometimes, the ball goes your way. Sometimes, it doesn’t,” Ottumwa coach Kyle LaPoint said. “Davenport Southeast made the plays. I tip my cap to them. There were plays they made that they might not nine out of 10 times. The inches didn’t fall in our favor in this game, but for us to come up here and play so well all the way to the championship game is pretty amazing for us.”
Ottumwa finishes postseason play with a combined record of 31-9 across all four age divisions. Davenport Southeast’s nine-year-old team finished with a postseason record of 10-1.
“Davenport is hub for youth baseball,” LaPoint said. “For us to go toe to toe with them for 12 innings, I couldn’t be any more proud of our kids.”