The Levittown Slammers' World Series Experience, Part 1

The Levittown Slammers under-16 softball team's path to a third-place finish at last week's Babe Ruth World Series took them through years of hard work and near-misses. So it's easy to understand if it didn't sink in at first.

"When we won, no one really realized it," said Kaitlin Mars. "I didn’t really think we were going until we were on the plane. It didn’t click until then that we won and that we’re going. It was exciting."

The Slammers came close to qualifying for the Series each of the two previous years, placing third at the 2009 Mid-Atlantic Championship and second at last year's championship. This year, they got over the hump and got to go to Lamar, Colorado.

"It was just a culmination of everyone coming together and finally achieving our dream," said Alexa Serrano. "When we finally realized we were going to Colorado, it was a feeling of euphoria that none of us had ever felt before."

Being the first team from the Metro New York area to qualify for the World Series left the Slammers with a lot of unknown quantities on their way to Colorado. Their first surprise came when they arrived in Lamar.

"At first, we got to a hotel, and it wasn’t like a hotel here," said Toniann Pasqueralle. "It was just two stories, one staircase. One of the people who lived there was like, 'This is our luxury.' It was just weird to adjust to."

"When we were driving up, we saw no lights in two hours," said Mars. "We were just happy to see lights and civilization."

Once the players got over the initial culture shock, though, they went back to focusing on playing. "I think it was weird to adjust," said Alannah Basile. "But after a few days, we got used to what we were doing every day."

"Once we got there and met the people around there, it was fine," added Mars. "It was just that different lifestyle that we weren’t used to."

The level of competition was also an unknown for the Slammers. ("Going there, I didn’t really know what to expect, because we only play teams as far as Pennsylvania," said Basile.) But, like they did with their new surroundings, the team adapted.

"I think we had the “respect all, fear none” mentality," Serrano said. "We knew that if we played our game, if our pitchers were on their game, we played smallball and that if we made the defensive plays, we thought we had a pretty good shot."

"We don’t assume it’s going to be easy, but we don’t get scared," added Pasqueralle. "We know that we want to win, and we play to win. Whatever competition is given to us, we just take."

Check back in tomorrow for Part 2 of our conversation with members of the Levittown Slammers, as they reflect on their on-field performance. And make sure to check out our stories on the team's run here.