The Carriker Family: A Life Full of Home Runs
WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – It was a late summer day in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 2007.
In the bottom of the eighth inning against Japan, 12-year-old Dalton Carriker swung the bat and hit a walk-off home run to give Warner Robins (Georgia) its first ever Little League World Championship.
“Warner Robins was the underdog going into the game, so a lot of people were expecting Japan to win,” says Dalton’s dad, Trent. “When we made it to the 8th inning with one out, Dalton was up.”
“In a situation like that, it’s never, you know, ‘I’m gonna hit a home run right here,'” says Dalton. “You never can just call a shot like that, so right off the bat when you see the ball go up and the crowd goes wild, it’s just a feeling that’s so hard to describe.”
This year, the dad who introduced Dalton to the game of baseball got some bad news.
“I was diagnosed with brain cancer on (Wednesday) February 6th,” says Trent. “I had my first brain surgery February 8th, and everything went great with it. Then, when I woke up Saturday morning, my father had passed away.”
All that while trying to run Wellston Decorating on Moody Road, the Carrikers’ family business.
Trent moved away to Texas to start treatments, and while he’s back in Georgia now, he’s still not done. By talking to him, though, you’d never know anything was wrong.
“Watching him battle with cancer and seeing how well he’s done, it really motivates you to be better in life and to become a better person,” says Dalton.
It’s that never quit attitude that surely had something to do with that home run.
“I’ve been away since February,” says Trent. “I came back basically at the first of June, so I was away for a few months. Now, I’m trying to get this store established and growing again.”
Dalton, who’s now 18, heads to college this Saturday. He’ll go to Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama, where–you guessed it–he’ll play baseball.
Warner Robins’ Little League boys fell in this year’s state tournament, but if you still want to catch Team Georgia in action, Columbus will represent the Peach State in the Southeast Regionals.
Georgia’s first pool play game is Friday at 4 at Little League Southeast Park in Warner Robins. 41NBC’s Tucker Sargent will be there for the game as the boys take on South Carolina.
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