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Courtesy of boltonphoto.com

Daniel High School pitcher Carley Hoover, seen here in action last season, recently captured a Little League Softball World Series title as a member of the Simpsonville Stars in Portland, Ore.

CENTRAL — As she returned to R.C. Edwards Middle School on Tuesday for the start of her eighth-grade year, Carley Hoover saw her name placarded across the school’s sign near the entrance on the front lawn, which served as a reminder of her incredible ending to the summer.

Just last Wednesday, in front a national television audience, Hoover started on the mound for the Simpsonville Stars, who rallied for five runs in the top of the sixth inning to win the Little League Softball World Series in Portland, Ore. by a final score of 9-5 over the squad from Robbinsville, N.J.

The team then returned to the Upstate on Friday night to a party put on by the recreation department in Simpsonville, while a parade on Sunday capped off the weekend.

It was then that Hoover, who also plays for the Daniel High School softball team, said the events of the past week had finally caught up to her, as her dream of capturing a World Series title in her last year of Little League eligibility came true.

“I think that's when it hit me and everyone else that we won,” she said.

Hoover, the daughter of Clemson head volleyball coach Jolene Hoover, and her team went 6-0 in World Series play, with a number of tight contests defining its time in the Pacific Northwest.

Prior to its championship game, the Simpsonville team, representing the South, had to outlast Latin America in a 10-inning marathon, which eventually saw the Stars plate two runs in the top of the tenth before holding on for a 7-6 victory.

Simpsonville also defeated the team from Sterling, Ill. after trailing by four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, before capturing victory in the bottom of the eighth.

And though it may have put a few gray hairs on the parents in attendance, Hoover said those early, comeback situations proved to be their saving grace in the championship game.

“We really thought we could do it, and we probably had more confidence than any other team if that situation were to happen,” she said.

The squad from New Jersey, representing the East, also didn’t do itself any favors after the second out was recorded in the top of the sixth and final inning, as their premature exuberance threw fuel on the Stars’ proverbial fire.

“When they were jumping up and down and saying ‘two down,’ I think that just pushed us to get hits and win,” Hoover said.

Hoover recorded 10 strikeouts while earning the win for the Simpsonville squad and also drove in a run in the top of the first inning with an RBI double, and later scored on an error to give her team an early 2-0 advantage.

Even with the strong start she had with the bat, Hoover said it took some time to get settled in, as her normal pre-game preparations were put a little off track with the camera crew from ESPN2 watching her every move.

“I was so excited before the game,” she said. “But then when the ESPN cameras were coming to watch me warm up, that’s when I started kind of getting nervous. But after the first few pitches in the first inning, I forgot about ESPN and all that.”

Although her time with the Little League squad is now over, Hoover will stay active with her softball travel team, the Carolina Crush, as well as the Lions’ softball team with her sister Hayley.

Carley will also be joining her sister as a member of the Lions’ volleyball squad this season, which scrimmaged at Pickens on Monday and will play at Riverside and Byrnes on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.

And now with what is likely her most memorable summer to date behind her, Hoover said she hopes to carry over what she learned in Oregon to her other sports back at home, as she’ll now know never to get too down, even when the odds are stacked against her.