When the Daniel Boone National Little League (Columbia, Missouri) all-star team reached the 2005 Midwest Region tournament, the Missouri champions won their opening game, then suffered a string of tough losses before finishing pool competition in fifth place. Among Daniel Boone's defeats were a 2-0 loss to eventual champion Davenport Northwest (Iowa) Little League and a 7-0 decision against Baxter Springs (Kansas) Little League in which the Kansas champions scored six unearned runs as part of a seven run fourth inning rally.

Ryan Phillips was on the mound for the Missouri champions in the loss to Davenport Northwest, and left-hander Landon Clapp drew the pitching assignment against Baxter Springs. Twelve months later, the two players, along with shortstop Will Echelmeier, returned to the Midwest Region tournament along with a new crop of Daniel Boone National all-stars as the Show Me State champions again took aim at the Little League World Series.

What a difference a year makes.

With Phillips and Clapp handling the bulk of the pitching duties, Daniel Boone National won all six of its games at Stokley Field in Indianapolis. The last of these victories, a 2-0 win over Davis County Little League (Bloomfield, Iowa), came in the region championship game, and advanced the Missouri champions to the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

"It's one of those dreams you're scared to dream," said Missouri manager Jeff Echelmeier after his team became just the second Missouri league in the sixty year history of the international tournament to advance to South Williamsport.

Phillips and Will Echelmeier were competing in the region tournament for the second time, while Clapp -- thanks to a change in how Little League baseball determines a player's age for the international tournament -- was making his third appearance in Indianapolis. Only one other U.S. Little Leaguer (Owensboro [Kentucky] Southern Little League's Dalton West, who benefited from the same rule change) has ever played in region tournament competition for three consecutive years.

All three Daniel Boone National veterans played a central role in Missouri's championship game win. Phillips threw a one-hitter, striking out fourteen batters and earning his third win of the tournament. After retiring the game's first batter on a groundout, Phillips struck out the next eight hitters he faced, then escaped a two on, two out threat in the fourth inning with another strikeout. Phillips did not walk a batter in the game, and finished the tournament with a 36-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 18 innings pitched.

Will Echelmeier and Clapp both chipped in hits when Daniel Boone opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning. Echelmeier singled with one out, moved to third on Clapp's double, and then scored the game's first run when the Iowa defense mishandled Ford Zitsch's two out pop up.

The next inning, Daniel Boone right fielder Jeffrey Ausmus delivered his third home run of the tournament to provide Missouri's other run. Ausmus had not hit an over-the-fence home run prior to his team's games in the region tournament.

Davis County pitcher Calvin Matthews, who struck out 31 batters in pool competition wins over Coon Rapids National (Minnesota) Little League and Galena (Kansas) Little League, struck out fourteen and did not walk a batter in the loss.

Phillips was equally tough in his two pool outings. The right-hander struck out eleven and scattered four hits as Daniel Boone National opened the tournament with a 6-1 win over Coon Rapids National. Phillips allowed a pair of first inning singles, then retired fifteen batters in a row before Coon Rapids National scratched for a run in the sixth inning.

"Ryan has been dominating all year long at this age level," said Jeff Echelmeier after the win. "The other kids rally around his confidence."

Third baseman Beau Burkett and catcher Nick de Jong helped Daniel Boone National to take the lead in the second inning. Burkett slammed a out-out double, and three batters later, de Jong blooped a single over the shortstop's head to drive in the game's first run. In the fourth inning, de Jong keyed a four run rally with a two-out, three-run home run over the center field fence, and in the fifth, Burkett added a solo home run.

"Obviously, you want to win the first one," said Jeff Echelmeier. "To get one out of the gate kind of takes the pressure off, and hopefully we can play relaxed the rest of the tournament."

Daniel Boone National remained in top form, though relaxation was another issue as six Missouri batters were hit by a pitch in the first three innings of a 13-2 victory over Galena. Columbia capitalized on the hit batsmen, along with five walks and five errors, to score six runs in the second inning and seven more in the fourth of the mercy rule-shortened win. Clapp, who had taken the loss to Kansas the previous year, allowed one hit and no earned runs while striking out six batters, and paced the Missouri offense with two hits and three runs batted in. Burkett added a two-run homer as part of Daniel Boone National's six run second inning rally, and was one of four Columbia players to score twice.

The early victories set up a key test for the Missouri champions, as Davis County converted strong pitching performances from Jesse Martsching (17 strikeouts in a 2-0 win over South Dakota's Harney Little League) and Matthews (14 strikeouts in a 6-3 win over Coon Rapids National) into two wins of its own. The two undefeated teams then met, and Daniel Boone waited out a 50 minute mid-game delay caused by lightning before striking for eleven runs in the fourth inning of a 12-0 victory. One year after allowing two runs and nine hits in a loss to the Iowa state champion, Phillips threw a five inning no-hitter and struck out nine batters. The Missouri pitcher also homered twice and drove in five runs. Ausmus (four RBIs) and Clapp also homered as Daniel Boone National clinched a semifinal round berth for the second time in three years. The Missouri champions wrapped up pool competition with a 4-3 win over Grand Island National (Nebraska) Little League.

Clapp was an eleven-year-old when Daniel Boone National's 2004 team reached the Midwest Region semifinals, and the then-right fielder singled and doubled in his team's 5-4 loss to Davenport Northwest. Two years later, Jeff Echelmeier handed the ball to his veteran when Daniel Boone entered the semifinal round fray against Grand Island National. Clapp escaped a bases loaded threat without allowing a run in the first inning, and kept the Nebraska champions off the scoreboard until the fourth. By that time, Daniel Boone National had built a commanding 9-0 lead en route to a 12-5 victory. Ausmus' three-run homer in the second opened the scoring, and Phillips and Clapp added back-to-back homers as part of a six run Missouri rally in the fourth. Grand Island crept to within 9-5 in the fifth, but Burkett responded with a two-run homer in the sixth, and Phillips closed out the game with a 1-2-3 sixth inning.

The win set up a rematch with Davis County, which topped Coon Rapids National, 3-0, in the other semifinal round win. Martsching struck out twelve batters, and held the Minnesota champions to three hits. Davis County broke the game open in the fifth, when Josey Garmon doubled in a pair of runs and Kody McSparren followed with an RBI single.

The next day, Matthews threw well, but Phillips continued his mastery of Davis County's hitters with his championship game one-hitter, and Daniel Boone's veterans stepped up to help deliver the victory.

Columbia's trio of returning players weren't the only members of the Daniel Boone community with region tournament experience. Nick de Jong's father Jim was living in Belgium with his family in 1963 when his Brussels Little League all-star team traveled to Kaiserslatern, Germany, to compete in the European Region tournament. Belgium's roster, like most European Region teams in that era and Transatlantic Region teams today, was comprised of expatriots living overseas, and the Brussels players hoped to reach Williamsport in part because of the promise of a two-week stay in the States. But the Belgium squad's hopes were dashed when eventual champion Izmir (Turkey) Little League claimed a 6-1 victory in the tournament's opening round.

Jim's son Nick was behind the plate when Phillips' gem helped secure the 2006 Midwest Region crown for Daniel Boone National. Soon after the game, Jim de Jong sent an e-mail to some of his former teammates with exciting news: he'd finally reached Williamsport.

"Forty-three years later," wrote the proud Daniel Boone parent, "my son brought me here."

Linescores:

Pool Play Game 1	1	2	3	4	5	6		R	H	E
Harney (South Dakota)	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	2	2
Davis County (Iowa)	0	0	2	0	0	x		2	3	0
Pool Play Game 2
Daniel Boone National (Missouri)	0	1	0	4	1	0		6	8	0
Coon Rapids National (Minnesota)	0	0	0	0	0	1		1	4	0
Pool Play Game 3
Galena (Kansas)	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	1	4
Grand Island National (Nebraska)	1	0	2	0	3	x		6	4	0
Pool Play Game 4
Davis County (Iowa)	1	3	0	0	0	2		6	9	1
Coon Rapids National (Minnesota)	2	0	0	0	1	0		3	6	2
Pool Play Game 5
Daniel Boone National (Missouri)	0	6	0	7				13	6	1
Galena (Kansas)	0	0	0	2				2	1	5
Pool Play Game 6
Harney (South Dakota)	2	0	1	0	0			3	3	4
Grand Island National (Nebraska)	2	3	1	2	5			13	13	4
Pool Play Game 7
Daniel Boone National (Missouri)	0	0	1	0	11			12	9	0
Davis County (Iowa)	0	0	0	0	0			0	0	1
Pool Play Game 8
Harney (South Dakota)	0	0	0	0	0	1		1	3	2
Coon Rapids National (Minnesota)	5	0	1	2	1	x		9	13	1
Pool Play Game 9
Coon Rapids National (Minnesota)	2	0	0	0	1	0		3	7	2
Grand Island National (Nebraska)	1	0	0	1	0	0		2	5	2
Pool Play Game 10
Galena (Kansas)	0	0	0	0	0	1		1	2	2
Davis County (Iowa)	1	0	2	0	2	x		5	3	1
Pool Play Game 11
Grand Island National (Nebraska)	0	1	0	0	2	0		3	9	0
Daniel Boone National (Missouri)	0	4	0	0	0	x		4	8	0
Pool Play Game 12
Harney (South Dakota)	2	4	0	2	1	2		11	13	1
Galena (Kansas)	0	0	0	1	1	0		2	5	3
Semifinal Round
Coon Rapids National (Minnesota)	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	3	0
Davis County (Iowa)	0	0	0	0	3	x		3	6	0
Semifinal Round
Daniel Boone National (Missouri)	0	3	0	6	0	3		12	11	3
Grand Island National (Nebraska)	0	0	0	1	4	0		5	8	5
Championship Game
Davis County (Iowa)	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	1	1
Daniel Boone National (Missouri)	1	1	0	0	0	x		2	5	2

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