They’re just 11- and 12-year-old boys playing baseball, a kids game.
Some of the players are shorter than 5-foot and weigh less than 100 pounds. For certain players, their smiles are filled with braces.
But for the last several weeks, around Hamilton and throughout Butler County, they’ve been treated like Hometown Heroes, and after winning the Great Lakes Regional Championship on Wednesday night, that celebrity status certainly will grow.
Several Hamilton bars and restaurants hosted watch parties Wednesday night for the championship game in Whitestown, Ind., and the Hamilton West Side Little League All-Stars didn’t disappoint their fans.
Hamilton’s Little League dream lives on as West Side heads back to Williamsport
Hamilton defeated Kentucky’s North Oldham 6-0 behind a brilliant pitching performance from Boone Treadway and timely hitting that produced all the game’s runs in the first inning.
Now Hamilton is headed back to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., for the first time since 2021.
When Treadway, whose father, Brion, coaches Badin High School’s baseball team, recorded a strikeout in the sixth and final inning, those who gathered at Shooters Sports Grill clapped and lifted their drinks in celebration.
Treadway pitched a one-hit, complete-game shutout. He threw 62 pitches, and struck out nine.
The biggest offensive blow was a two-run, first-inning homer from 12-year-old Josiah Infante, who at 6-foot, 185 pounds is the most physically imposing young baseball player to come out of Hamilton since Joe Nuxhall.
Todd Helton, owner of Shooters, said about 200 patrons watched the championship game in the restaurant. Typically on a Wednesday night, when boneless wings are $1 each, Helton said the crowd would be about half that size.
The boneless wings were no match for the West Side All-Stars.
Many of those who watched the game on the 10-foot by 20-foot TV in the main bar, said they support the West Side team because the players are local.
They’re all home grown talent.
“We see these kids come in all year with their parents,” Helton said. “Now we're sitting here watching them on TV. It’s all the hometown connections that make it exciting. Everybody knows somebody on the team.”
Heather Chesnut, who drives a bus for the Hamilton City School District, is mother of four Hamilton High graduates.
“Hamilton is ‘it’ for us,” she said. “Some of these boys are in our district so I’m here to support them.”
Bryce Bachochin wore his Hamilton West Side All-Star jersey to watch the game with his parents. Bryce, 10, is a catcher on the 11-year-old West Side All-Star team.
His goal is to play on the 11-12 year-old all-star team next season and bring a World Series title back to Hamilton.
“It’s an honor to play on this team,” said Bryce, a fifth-grader at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.
Seth Morris said he played on a traveling baseball team growing up. Now as an adult, he was drinking beer, watching boys from his hometown playing baseball on ESPN2.
“Ain’t it crazy?” he said.
The 2026 Little League World Series begins on Wednesday, Aug. 19. As the Great Lakes region winner, West Side will face the yet-to-be-determined Mountain Region champion at 2 p.m. on Aug. 20.