In 1964 a team from Riverside won the first annual Roy Overholt Little League Tournament in Brookfield. No Riverside team had won since, at least until Friday night when the Riverside Phillies swept two games from the Brookfield Burnt Meatballs to capture the 60th Overholt Tournament played at Roy Overholt Field located in Kiwanis Park in Brookfield. The tournament matches the Little League Major Division, 10–12-year-olds, championship teams from a number of local towns.
Brookfield had beaten Riverside 5-3 in a second round game earlier in the week so the Riverside Phillies had to defeat the Burnt Meatballs twice on Friday evening to take the title in the double elimination tournament. They did so in overwhelming fashion. In the first game they broke a 2-2 tie in the fourth inning to go on and win the first game 12-2 and then, behind the pitching and hitting of Tommy Martin, walloping Brookfield 14-0 in four innings to take the title.
“I tell the kids all the time that there is nothing better than winning with your friends and there is nothing better than winning for your town,” said Ryan Sherman, the coach of the Phillies.
Martin shook off a case of the flu, complete with a fever, chills, and a sore throat to pitch a one hitter striking out 10 of the 14 batters he faced including seven strikeouts in a row. Martin, who sometimes struggles with control relied on his fastball which he throws in excess of 70 mph. Friday night Martin only walked two batters. The only hit by Brookfield, a single by Obadiah Sokol, came in the fourth. Sokol hit a single to left on the only curveball Martin threw in the game.
“He’s just really hard to hit when he’s throwing strikes,” Sherman said of Martin. “He was just dialed in.”
Martin was also dominant at the plate going four for four with a double and triple. He scored four runs and drove in two. Riverside scored five runs in the top of the first to take control of the final game and never looked back.
“It’s pretty cool,” said Martin about a Riverside team winning the Overholt tournament for the first time in 59 years.
In the first game Friday Quinn Simmons struck out 13 for the Phillies while allowing five hits and two runs. At the plate Simmons was 2 for 2 with two walks and two RBI and three runs scored.
The first game was tied 2-2 when ace Brookfield pitcher James Organ hit the 85-pitch limit and had to come out. The Phillies then exploded for 10 runs.
The Phillies finished the season with a 19-1 record.
Earlier in the weeklong tournament the Phillies defeated the LaGrange champions 13-3, lost to the Burnt Meatballs 5-3, defeated Stickney 7-3, defeated Western Springs 11-7, and overwhelmed LaGrange Park 23-2 to advance to the finals against the Brookfield team.
“These kids will never forget this,” Sherman said.
