Congratulations to the Murrayhill Little League team of Beaverton, Oregon becoming the first Little League team to make it to the Little League World Series (LLWS) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, since Rose City in 1958! They also became the first team from Oregon to make it to the U.S. Teams Championship Game, where the ride came to an end on August 26th 7-3 to Columbus, Georgia.
Murrayhill also was the first team to win four straight state titles and fifth straight District 4 title. They earned their tickets to Williamsport on August 13th in San Bernadino, California when Murrayhill beat Diamond-West of Anchorage, Alaska 5-4 to represent the Northwest Region in the 60th LLWS with an undefeated 15-0 record.
In 1958, Rick Wise, future major league pitcher, was the star of the Rose City team. Sam Albert led the Murrayhill team with the best batting average in the LLWS at .533. Following in the footsteps of the Oregon State Beavers baseball team, Murrayhill lost its first game too in their championship tournament, 6-1 on August 18th. Then won their next three straight to make it to the U.S. Finals.
They advanced out of pool play August 21st with a close 2-1 win over Columbia, Missouri and won a wild 4-3 comeback win over Lemont, Illinois in the U.S. Semifinals on August 23rd. The team was scheduled to play Mexico for third place on Sunday, August 27th, but the game was rained out. It still was quite an honor to make it to the final day of the LLWS and to get the opportunity to play before over 25,000 fans in the Championship Game. Maybe one day a few of them will make it to the majors like Rick Wise did.
They received a heroes welcome Monday night, August 28th at PDX after being out of state since August 2nd quite a memorable summer for this group of 12 and 13-year olds. The new Boys of Summer.
