Whether it’s drawing 1,500-plus people for their Opening Day Ceremonies or enrolling a record 557 kids for the 2026 season, Los Gatos Little League Baseball is thriving perhaps like never before.
Storylines abound each year and this season is no exception. The Mariners’ Parsa Schmidt and the Marlins’ Barrett Laubach happen to be friends, classmates and teammates on the same club team. Their dads—Will Schmidt and Russ Laubach—are the managers for their respective teams. Both Will and Russ also serve as LGLL board members, Will as the president and Russ as the player agent.
The Marlins beat the Mariners 5-3 on May 2 to improve to 10-4 in the Majors Division standings, a half-game back of the first-place White Sox. The Mariners, meanwhile, dropped to 7-7. Parsa and Barrett have been turning heads—literally—when they inevitably launch home runs well beyond the outfield fence at Baggerly Field.
Entering this week’s play, Schmidt has blasted 14 home runs, a league record in the USA bat era (since 2018). Laubach has hit seven home runs, and similar to Schmidt, their round-trippers can best be described as moon shots. Both players bat left-handed, meaning whenever they hit a long home run, it lands in the area of the walkway behind the right-field fence at Baggerly Field.
In the beginning of the season, the LGLL Board decided to install netting on 15 foot tall poles in order to try to “contain” the balls hit from Parsa and Barrett.
“It hasn’t done anything,” Will said. “Between the two of them, 20 of their 21 home runs went over the net.”
Parsa and Barrett’s at-bats have been must-see TV—er, viewing—to those involved with LGLL and beyond. With 48 teams spread across all divisions and all of the games bunched together at Blossom Hill and Baggerly, players from opposing teams and divisions can watch each other play.
“A lot of kids hang out there in the middle of the neighborhood and can walk (back and forth) to those fields,” Will said. “There’s a big snack shack which is always a plus. When Parsa or Barrett comes up, there will be a big crowd of boys running to the outfield to try to catch a home run ball. Word has gotten out in what the kids are doing. Part of that is Barrett’s brother is in high school, so there was a game when a bunch of high school kids showed up to watch the game. Other younger kids in the league will come over and watch because it’s kind of a show.”
As a volunteer-driven league, coaches and parents in LGLL dedicate countless hours to help the organization run like a well-oiled machine. The communal aspect of LGLL means certain relationships bloom into lifelong friendships and successive generations support the organization.
“Los Gatos is a town that loves its youth baseball,” Will said. “The league is a strong baseball community and it is doing well because of an awesome community of volunteers. We require all families to do (volunteer) six hours per kid, so there’s a great standard of volunteerism in our league.”
Will praised LGLL Vice President of Operations Michelle Nielsen for her unwavering commitment to the organization.
“There’s people like Michelle who probably put in six hours a day,” Will said. “All the board members are incredible in helping all areas, and Michelle and her husband are a huge part of the support that makes everything go.”
The LGLL playoffs run from May 11-30. Shortly after that, the all stars for each division will be named, kicking off the Little League All Star tournament season. Parsa and Barrett—who also double as ace-type starting pitchers—are virtual locks to make the Majors All Star roster. Even though both players have combined for 21 home runs, their power output has come as a mild surprise.
After all, Barrett hit one home run last year and Parsa—drum roll, please—zero. That’s right, Parsa never cleared the fences in the 2025 season. So what accounts for their power surge?
“He (Barrett) finally grew a little more,” Russ said. “He’s in the sixth grade now, and he’s gotten more size in and his swing has gotten a little better.”
Russ said he could see something like this coming, given Barrett did have a five-game stretch last year in which he hit a ball off the fence. A year later, those balls are leaving Baggerly in a hurry. Will noted there’s a dramatic difference in physicality from an 11-year-old boy to a 12-year-old.
“You see kids come back a year later and they’re just much bigger and stronger,” Will said. “Some of them went through early puberty. Plus, it’s rare for an 11-year-old to hit a home run at Baggerly. This year in the Majors there have been around 30 home runs hit and none of those have been by an 11-year-old. Last year I believe one 11-year-old hit a home run at Baggerly, and that was Barrett Laubach. These kids grow a lot from 11 to 12.”
In addition to getting bigger and stronger, Parsa and Barrett both spend plenty of time honing their swing. In fact, Parsa was in the batting cages three to four times a week with his dad in the off-season.
“The kid worked his butt off,” Will said. “He and I are in that batting cage all the time.”
Will and Russ know having success brings other factors into play. That’s why they’ve both had meaningful conversations with their sons on the importance of staying humble and being a good teammate.
“I try to stay even keel and push him but not push him too hard,” Russ said. “And praise him but try not to praise him too much. I tell him that his success is good, but if you want to win, elevate the other kids as well. The game can be hard at times, but it’s always about staying calm and being under control. I think both kids have done that.”
Will has communicated a similar message with Parsa throughout the season.
“It’s, Be humble, don’t show kids up, don’t show pitchers up if you hit a home run, don’t stand there and watch it,” Will said. “Act like you’ve been there before.”
Perhaps the greatest challenge for both players will come in the playoffs, when opposing teams will likely pitch around them because more is at stake.
“For a 12-year-old kid to get pitched around, that’s frustrating because they just want to go up and hit,” Will said. “So that’s been a big conversation that when Parsa gets walked, that’s fine. You get on base and help the team that way. It’s the right baseball decision. I’ll even ask Parsa, ‘If you were the opposing manager, would you pitch to yourself?’ So he understands why.”
The Schmidt and Laubach families have developed a bond and root each other on—except when they’re playing each other, of course. When Parsa hit grand slams in back-to-back innings earlier this season, Russ couldn’t help but smile because he did that as a 12-year-old playing in LGLL nearly two decades ago.
“It’s been a fun season watching Parsa and Barrett have the seasons they’re having,” Russ said. “What’s great about this is we have other friends within the league and we have a text thread going highlighting when one of our sons do well. We’re all chiming in and congratulating each other’s kids. All the managers are buddies and we try to pull for all the kids to make sure they have a good experience in Los Gatos Little League.”
