Pearland Little League fans outnumbered in Pennsylvania

Jeff Ehling Image
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Pearland fans outnumbered in Pennsylvania
Getting a win tonight could be a tough task for the Pearland team in front of a crowd of thousands cheering for their competition

WILLIAMSPORT, PA (KTRK) -- Pearland is getting ready to face its biggest challenge in the road to the Little League World Series. The team is taking on Lewisberry, Pennsylvania at 7pm tonight.

Talk about pressure, if Pearland wins the team goes to the US championship game, and look at this crowd Pearland fans will be outnumbered 1,000 to 1.

The line to get a ticket to tonight's game started forming at 6am -- nearly everyone here is not rooting for Pearland.

"I'm rooting for Lewisberry, Pennsylvania," said one fan Ben Koleno.

Lewisberry is drawing huge crowds because they are as close you can get to a hometown team.

"You are only two hours away from their home so everybody local is rooting for them," said Pennsylvania fan Brian Mostoller.

But we did manage to find at least one group of fans with a Pearland connection.

"My brother Kelly and his wife Brenda live in Pearland, we were there last August to visit them and fell in love with the place, the Kolache Factory is great," said Pearland fan Nikki Ridenour.

Ridenour is not worried about being outnumbered.

"It's going to be great. We are excited, excited for it," she said.

And Pearland is gaining a following here. Even those without Texas roots are warming up to Pearland.

"Texas is a really good team, you are going to have power on power, it depends on who is pitching," said baseball fan Linwood Stephens.

We find out in a couple of hours who the starting pitcher will be.