Wednesday afternoon, the Bend North Little League team met at Skyline Middle school for their first plane ride as a team to Southern California.

On the other side of the flight is Al Houghton Stadium in San Bernardino, California, where the team will play the best Little League teams from Washington, Idaho and Alaska on perhaps the nicest fields in their young baseball career while having their games streamed on ESPN+.

In short, the squad is living every Little Leaguer’s dream.

“We can’t really believe it,” said Cade Craveiro. “Because it is not every day that you can say you get to go to regionals.”

The 12 players of the Bend North team — Craveiro, Cael Miranda, Micah Gylling, Chase Johnson, Mosi Montgomery, Ashton Martindale, Porter Cole, Tyler Griego, Jensen Flagel, Aksel Stevens, Walker Dean and Rowen Dusan — is now one step away from reaching the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Should it make it through the Northwest Regional, it will become Bend North’s second baseball team (2016) to reach Little League’s biggest stage.

Coach Matt Gylling still remembers watching the Little League World Series on television decades ago when he was the same age as the players he is coaching.

“It is every Little Leaguer’s dream to play in Williamsport,” said Gylling. “They’ve earned it. There is no other way to describe it. We are just really excited and really fortunate to go there and do this. It is an accomplishment that they can always look back to. It is an awesome experience that they will always remember.”

To be on the doorstep of the berth in the Little League World Series, the Bend North players had to do something they hadn’t done the previous two summers — win the state tournament.

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Bend North Little League advances to regional round after state title

The previous two summers, the majority of this year’s team have made it all the way to the state championship game as 10- and 11-year olds only to come up a win short of claiming the title.

But this summer, with their first chance at advancing to the regional round, the boys were ready and confident that their third crack at a state championship would finally break through.

And Bend North did just that by taking Murrayhill Little League 6-3 in Medford to finally claim a title.

“We have been in championship situations,” said pitcher Chase Johnson, who struck out 12 Murrayhill batters in the championship game. “That confidence gave us that boost to win that game.”

If there was ever a time to finally break through and win a state title, it was this year. There is no regional round for 10- and 11-year old Little Leaguers, so the state tournament is the furthest a team can go.

“Personally I’ve never been more happy to not get second place,” Craveiro said. “Especially after the last two years when it didn’t matter because there were no games afterwards. It is good that this is the year we won.”

Added Gylling: “We won the one that really mattered. All those were great experiences to build up to those pressure situations.”

Bend North will take on state champions from Washington (South Hill Little League) Idaho (West Valley Little League) and Alaska (Abbott O’Rabbit Little League) in a double-elimination tournament. The winner will be one of 20 teams — 10 from the United States and 10 international teams — to reach the World Series.

“I think it is cool that we get to play more baseball and play better competition than we did at district and state,” Johnson said.

In the days leading up to its first game on Saturday at 6 p.m. (aired on ESPN+), Bend North isn’t just preparing to face Alaska, but also the fanfare with playing on the biggest stage they’ve played on.

“We still go through our daily routines,” Gylling said. “We just have to stay consistent in what we do and not deviate from what got us here. As much as we can keep things the same, the better we are going to be.”