BYRON CENTER, Mich — Thousands of people from across the country are flocking to Williamsport, Pennsylvania for the Little League World Series and Home Run Derby. West Michigan will be represented in the events this year by a young girl from Byron Center.
“She put in a lot of work during the off season, got a lot stronger and now she’s a force,” said Jeremy Moore.
12 year old Emma Moore has played softball for most of her life. And now in her final little league year, the Byron Center native is headed to the T-Mobile Little League Home Run Derby.
“Emma has had a lot of good experiences with softball. She has the most amazing teammates. The most encouraging coaches. And to see it paying off and her getting to celebrate how much she’s grown by doing the home run derby has been really exciting,” said Amy Moore, Emma’s mom.
In late July, Emma and her family traveled to Kansas City for the Great Lakes regional tournament of the derby hoping to make it to the finals. She
Last summer, Emma made it to the regional round of the competition but fell short. After a whole year of hard work, she wanted to try again so in the Byron Center qualifier she blasted 70 homers to get her to regionals.
“It was tough because it was really cold and there was water in the softball so it made them heavier and they didn’t fly as far,” said Emma.
“We had to channel water away because they were standing in puddles in the batters box,” said Jeremy.
From there, she traveled to Kansas for the East Regional where she went up against 10 other girls from across the country. Her teammates back in West Michigan were cheering her on.
“They had a watch party for me and I saw some videos where they were trash talking the other competitors,” said Emma.
And she won it all at Kaufman Stadium that weekend, punching her ticket to the derby finals set for this week at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
“There is so much history there. I watch it every year. These kids are phenomenal, it blows my mind every year,” said Jeremy.
The Home Run Derby is set for Friday, August 23rd at 7pm and will can be watched live on ESPN2.
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