In Chesco, pride and a Little League loss

Halfway through the game, the folks who packed the bar and some nearby tables at the Applebee's on Eagleview Boulevard in Exton were counting Joe Janick's pitches.

He was up to 49 of the 85 he could throw.

"Come on, Joe!" some of them yelled at the television. "Attaboy."

At that point, Chester County's state champion Lionville Little League baseball team trailed the Newark (Del.) National League by six runs. But the crowd remained engaged with every play, steadfast in its positivity.

"Seeing them is like watching my brothers," Stephen DiLullo, 14, whose cousin and many of whose friends play on the team, said from one of the booths. "I've known them all my life."

Everybody focused on the televisions in Applebee's - and almost everyone at the Winner's Circle Sports Bar down the road - knew someone involved with Lionville Little League, which lost Sunday night's mid-Atlantic final, the gateway to the Little League World Series, after winning 16 straight games in the playoffs.

So it was tough for some in this Little League community to watch some of the young players with tears in their eyes on national television after the 8-2 loss in Bristol, Conn.

"As a mom, it's heartbreaking," said Maureen Howard, who watched the game with her husband and four children at the Winner's Circle. "But I hope they wipe those tears away and realize how much they've accomplished."

The team was the first in Lionville Little League's 43-year history to make it this far.

"We're not one of those perennial teams fighting for it every year," Lionville Little League president Frank Giancatarino said. "They're still heroes. God knows when this will happen again. We'll be talking about this team 30 years from now."

The team of 12-year-olds has been playing together for years. Most of its members attend Lionville Middle School in the Downingtown Area School District.

They also play together on travel teams, which are sometimes more competitive than even the Little League playoffs.

The difference is that the playoffs are a larger stage, said Todd McClure, a coach for the Chester County Bobcats, a travel team that has some of Lionville's players on its roster.

"They're playing for their town," McClure said. "They're playing for every kid they know. They're playing for every person who sent them a text message that said, 'Good luck.' "