WILLIAMSPORT, PA. (KELO) — Sioux Falls Little League is the midwest representative at the Little League World Series for a second straight season after winning the regional championship last Friday.
Team South Dakota claimed the crown with a 6-0 win over Fargo in the title game, which marked the third shutout for SF over the five-game tournament. Sioux Falls outscored its opponents 22-6. SF’s pitchers tallied 41 strikeouts and allowed just one earned run over 30 innings.
“Focus it one pitch at a time, which leads to your attack, which leads to innings, which leads to outs,” Sioux Falls LL head coach Ryan Vavruska said. “They’ve done a very good job.”
After winning its first two games at the regional, Sioux Falls suffered a 5-4 defeat to Fargo, which meant they had to still win two games on consecutive days to move onto Williamsport. That was the first defeat this group suffered together, but it sparked them.
“It was probably the best thing that could have happened to us because we hadn’t lost the game with this team together,” Vavruska said. “So their perseverance, getting us back to that championship game says a lot about the team that we have.”
2025 marks the fourth trip in program history to the Little League World Series. While the coaches led the group there last year, it is an entirely new set of players, who will be playing against the best 12-year-olds in the nation and the world.
“At any given point, any team can get beat,” Vavruska said. “So, understanding that we can’t be complacent as far as getting into these games and understanding it’s going to take one through 12. It’s going to take everybody on our team to play a role in making sure that we’re successful at the end of the day.”
The team drove straight from Indiana to Williamsport on Saturday. Sioux Falls is set to open up play Thursday at 6 p.m. CT against the Pennsylvania state champion from the Upper Uwchlan Township, who is representing the Mid-Atlantic.
