{"id":221570,"date":"2026-08-22T10:23:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T10:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/noah-kirk-carries-familys-baseball-legacy-to-little-league-world-series-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T10:23:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T10:23:34","slug":"noah-kirk-carries-familys-baseball-legacy-to-little-league-world-series-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/noah-kirk-carries-familys-baseball-legacy-to-little-league-world-series-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Noah Kirk carries family's baseball legacy to Little League World Series – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

On any given day, Noah Kirk<\/a> will open an old notebook and read some words of advice he scribbled down:
Never stop studying.\u00a0<\/em>
Keep up the hard work.\u00a0<\/em>
Never let your dream disappear.<\/em>
Those words, from his older cousin and Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk<\/a>, have stayed in his head. After all, Alejandro has reached the heights that Noah, 12, has dreamed of ever since he picked up a bat at 3 years old. Whenever Alejandro tells him something, Noah listens.
\u201cHe came from nowhere, just a small town in Mexico,\u201d Noah told USA TODAY Sports. \u201cAnd how he\u2019s on the big stage, (like) last year in the World Series. He\u2019s put in a lot of hard work since he was little, and he\u2019s still putting in the work still.\u201d
The hard work already seems to be paying off for Noah, too.\u00a0
He has emerged as a leader and tone setter for the Sweetwater Valley Little League 12U All-Stars<\/a> out of Bonita, California, an unincorporated community near Chula Vista. Noah plays both ways for his team, serving as their leadoff hitter and pitching ace. He’s set to start in their first game of the 2026 Little League World Series<\/a> against Davenport, Iowa, on Friday, Aug. 21.\u00a0
Noah helped power his team through regionals with two home runs and in the final against Hawaii, pitched a gem with six strikeouts through four scoreless innings as Bonita jumped out to a 5-0 lead. But in the top of the fifth, momentum started to swing the other way.
Noah gave up back-to-back singles from Kawaihau Community Little League to lead off the frame, and they cashed in on the next at-bat with a three-run homer from Waika Doctolero. The lead suddenly down to just two runs, Noah walked the next batter and it began to look like things might spiral.
But even with his pitch count creeping toward the 85-pitch limit, Noah stayed locked in, reminded himself to trust his teammates, and got the next batter swinging for his seventh strikeout of the game. Now at 83 pitches, Kaikea Saiki was all but guaranteed to be the final batter Noah would face, and he made it count. Noah fell behind 3-1 in the count but managed to work it back full before getting Saiki to hit a comebacker to the mound. Noah fielded the ball, threw the runner out at second, and Mateo Ruiz fired it to first baseman Jesus Cuadra to get a crucial inning-ending double play.
Bonita responded and left no doubt with a six-run bottom half of the inning to shut the door on Hawaii 11-3, punching their ticket to Williamsport and becoming the first team from San Diego County to represent the West since 2016.
That same night<\/a>, 2,477 miles away in Toronto, Alejandro Kirk went 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs against the New York Yankees in a 3-1 win.
\u201cIt\u2019s something special for the whole family,\u201d Alejandro Kirk told USA TODAY Sports in Spanish. \u201cWe\u2019re all huge on baseball in my family. I think seeing both of us succeed and doing what we love is something that we have to feel proud of.\u201d
And it\u2019s not just them two. Alejandro’s Little League team was coached by his father, Juan Manuel Kirk, who played amateur ball. His older brother, Juan Manuel Jr., is currently a catcher for los Pericos de Puebla in la Liga Mexicana de Beisbol. Noah\u2019s father plays on an adult softball team. Alejandro and Noah play each other in wiffleball in their spare time; “I’m better than him,” he says with a chuckle. There\u2019s an entire ecosystem of baseball lovers there to support Noah, and that extends out into his community.
South San Diego County is a historic Little League powerhouse. Representing California District 42, they\u2019ve sent five teams to the Little League World Series since 2009, though Bonita is the first to make it through regionals in a decade<\/a>.
\u201cThe whole community is pretty baseball crazy,\u201d manager Steve Winnick told USA TODAY Sports. \u201cAnd then you put his family, which has a big leaguer there, it\u2019s just exponential. We get to play year-round because of our weather. Kids love baseball down south.\u201d
Noah\u2019s loved the game since he could walk. Whenever the Blue Jays are in SoCal to play the Padres, Dodgers or Angels, he\u2019s right there in the family section to cheer on his cousin. His favorite moment came in Game 3 of the 2025 World Series at Dodger Stadium, when Alejandro \u2014 the first Mexican-born player to go yard in the Fall Classic \u2014 connected on a hanging curveball from Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow. Noah heard the crack of the bat and watched as the ball sailed over the fence in left center field for a three-run go-ahead home run.\u00a0
The two cousins didn\u2019t have much time after that 18-inning game, but when they got dinner the next night, Noah was still in awe.
\u201cMy dream was to make it to the World Series and win it,\u201d Noah said. \u201cBut since I got to see one of my family members in it, it was amazing.\u201d
Now that it\u2019s Noah\u2019s turn to play in his<\/em> World Series, Alejandro told USA TODAY Sports that he\u2019ll be tuned in to his games every step of the way.\u00a0
\u201cFor me, that\u2019s the most beautiful time in baseball,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you go out there to have fun and play with a lot of passion. That\u2019s what it\u2019s about.\u201d
Noah will be wearing No. 15 in Williamsport as the jersey numbers were just assigned to players for the tournament, but he sported Alejandro\u2019s No. 30 throughout the entirety of Sweetwater Valley\u2019s run in regionals as a hat tip to the player he looks up to. That familial admiration is mutual.\u00a0
\u201cIt\u2019s been great that he\u2019s been able to follow me around at my games and seeing what he\u2019s doing, it\u2019s something I\u2019m proud of,\u201d Alejandro said. \u201cHe\u2019s family. He\u2019s a Kirk. I think he\u2019s done very well for his age, and I think he has a great future.\u201d
But even if the digits on the back of his jersey are different, the name across the back remains the same.<\/p>\n

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On any given day, Noah Kirk will open an old notebook and read some words of advice he scribbled down:Never stop studying.\u00a0Keep up the hard work.\u00a0Never let your dream disappear.Those words, from his older cousin and Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk, have stayed in his head. After all, Alejandro has reached the heights that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}