During the 2026 Little League Softball World Series, coach Ben Catarozzoli said numerous young fans were decked out in Johnston County Little League gear, and they flooded his team’s girls with selfie and autograph requests.
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His 12-and-under players — from Johnston County LL and representing North Carolina — had just become celebrities to the over 3,000 spectators at Stallings Stadium in Greenville by defeating a Kentucky team, 2-0, to claim the state’s fourth-ever title.
Many of them will reconvene at Archer Lodge Middle School and then at Corinth Holders High School, where they will have title expectations. Eventually, some will play college softball, and potentially go on to the professional Athletes Unlimited Softball League.
But even if they don’t end up pursuing the sport at a higher level, he said they have already left their mark.
“I hope,” Catarozzoli told the News & Observer, “that what we did continues to inspire the girls in the area.”
Johnston County LL first chartered a softball team in 2023, and just a few years later they reached the top rung of national competition by assembling scattered local talents and dismantling negative preconceptions associated with Little League softball.
Catarozzoli — who had coached high school baseball in his hometown of Wisconsin — became the team’s manager after his daughter, Sophie Catarozzoli, joined the league a few years ago. A fellow league board member had asked him to lead the group.
“I had no clue what I was really getting into,” Catarozzoli said, “but I said sure.”
In 2025, Johnston County LL had one of its best rosters, Catarozzoli said, but bowed out of the North Carolina State Little League Tournament to Rowan County Little League. They took issue with the game’s umpires and filed a grievance after the defeat, he added.
The players who returned the next year from that loss, however, he said, had a “fire” lit under them. They used it to recruit their peers, while he leveraged his connections as a teacher at Archer Lodge Middle School to collect talents from across the area to Johnston County LL.
Catarozzoli also convinced more travel softball players to play in the league by telling them about how each team had multiple travel ball pitchers and that other regions had plenty of high-level players.
He pointed to how Avery Cox, a top prospect in the class of 2033 from Texas, can throw 66 miles per hour, a mark on par with many college players.
“One thing I will stand on is,” Catarozzoli said, “that our team was better than any 12-U travel ball team in this state.”
One key addition was Anna Lynn-Clark, a right-handed pitcher who tossed a complete-game shutout in the LLSWS final, throwing 93 pitches. The day before, she hurled a 109-pitch, 11-strikeout shutout against a Florida team, according to MLB.com.
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Lynn-Clark had been playing at a recreation league in Princeton before switching to Johnston County LL, Catarozzoli said.
“(Lynn-Clark’s) mom stopped me about halfway through All-Star practices one day,” Catarozzoli said, “and she was just laughing because she said if she (had) known that this existed and that we had this team going, they would have joined a long time ago.”
Johnston County LL President Ronnie Correia said he hopes more players will shrug off preconceptions about the quality of play in Little League after the team’s victory. He also coaches under-14 travel ball, but said Little League teams are more grounded to their area because of residency requirements.
As the league president, he also understands that the talent level among the teams must be high enough for travel players to feel they are developing as they play.
“I’m in both worlds, and it can coexist,” Correia said. “You just have to have the commitment to making a league that harbors both environments.”
Johnston County’s 2026 LLSWS run began after they enacted revenue against Rowan County in the state tournament to earn a spot in the national competition. In Greenville, the team went 5-0, besting the purple bracket before knocking off orange bracket winners, Kentucky, in the final.
In the final, right fielder Abbey Robinson made two inning-ending catches to support Clark’s complete-game shutout. Meanwhile, Belle Cox drove in the game’s only RBI in the second inning to seal the offensive side of the victory.
When Lynn-Clark was asked about her pitching magic on television, following her ace-showing in the contest, she shifted the focus to the team’s camaraderie — a togetherness Catarozzoli credited for part of the reason they won the LLSWS.
“I have the best defense behind me,” Lynn Clark told ESPN, “the best offense (and) the best team.”
Over 12 days in Greenville, Catarozzoli said his team got a taste of what playing college softball might look like — living, eating and sleeping in dormitories.
After the win, he left his players with one final message: this is just your first of many victories.
“When you build something like this,” Catarozzoli said, “you hope it’s not a flash in the pan.”
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This story was originally published August 10, 2026 at 4:53 PM.