Kiwi Chayton Krauss a big hit in baseball's Little League

Chayton Krauss celebrates with teammate Adam Cramer after driving in the game-winning run with a walk-off single off Pearland, Texas' Marco Gutierrez in the sixth inning. Photo / AP

Kiwi kid Chayton Krauss is unlikely to ever forget the game-winning run he hit at the bottom of the sixth inning in last weekend's Little League World Series championship qualifier.

The 12-year-old hit a single run, breaking a tie and securing victory for the Red Land (Lewisbury, Pennsylvania).

The win offered the Red Land a spot in the championship game against Tokyo.

"It felt awesome and it was amazing to get that hit and it felt great," he told the Associated Press after the game.

"I just remember that he had a decent fastball and decent curveball and I got a fastball and just drilled it."

Krauss moved from New Zealand to the United States with his family when he was just four years old.

A quick Google search for "little league world series" brings up a long list of media outlets covering the outcomes of the games, from small local rags to international news agencies.

Google "Chayton Krauss" and over 21,000 hits are found in a third of a second.

Baseball in the United States is treated with the same reverence given to rugby in New Zealand, so perhaps if the Krauss family had stayed put Chayton would be an aspiring All Black by now.

ESPN shows live coverage of the World Series games every year and at least one game this series attracted more than two million viewers.

The numbers for the Pennsylvania vs. Texas game were not immediately available.

The obsession with the Little League World Series is particularly interesting if you consider the "little" part of the equation - it's not usual in sport to focus so intensely on the performance of pre-teen athletes.

At the game itself, Red Land fans were already lining up for the Pennsylvania vs. Texas game at 6 a.m. for the 3:30 p.m. start, helping set a single-game attendance record of 45,716.

His grandfather, Don, came all the way from Auckland to see him play in the Little League World Series.

"I surprised him the first game," Krauss said. "He didn't know I was coming.

"I never really took in the enormity of this thing. It's sort of got a life of its own. I'm glad to see the kids are doing as well as they are. I'm hopeful for the team that they can carry it through."

Pennsylvania lost the championship game to Tokyo the following day. Japan is perhaps the only country in the world to rival the U.S. when it comes to baseball fanaticism.

Despite the loss, the young players have been given a heroes' welcome on their return to their small Pennsylvanian home town.

Police, firefighters and EMS crews escorted them upon their return and locals say their success has put them on the map.

"This is the biggest thing that has happened in our little town," 2011 Red Land High School graduate Chelsea Covington of New Cumberland told a local Pennsylvanian paper.

"We were a little town that nobody even knew existed. Everybody around the world knows where we are now. It's crazy."