Valley Little Leaguers Get a Hero’s Welcome : Homecoming: Family, friends and onlookers gather at LAX to offer ‘Earthquake Kids’ a rousing greeting.

One day after the most heartbreaking loss of their short careers, the 14 members of the Northridge Little League team were wide-eyed with surprise Sunday as a cheering throng at Los Angeles International Airport gave them a hero’s homecoming.

Saturday’s wrenching 4-3 loss to a team from Maracaibo, Venezuela, in the final game of the Little League World Series might just as well never have happened.

“They are one of the two best teams in the world, and they’ll always be No. 1 to us,” said Shelley Piccard, aunt of reserve player Scott (Scooter) Drake.

About 200 giddy family members and fans packing camcorders and cameras gathered outside the USAir gate to await the team’s afternoon arrival from Williamsport, Pa.

Many held placards or banners made of bedsheets, proclaiming the team “U.S. Little League Champions,” a crown they had already garnered before taking the field against Venezuela. Others waved “Earthquake Kids” signs, referring to the nickname given a team forced to juggle batting practice with house repairs after the Northridge quake rolled through in January.

“Baseball is life,” read one fan’s T-shirt. “The rest is just details.”

The excitement in the usually quiet and dimly lit terminal lured others leisurely awaiting the arrival of friends and relatives.

“What’s going on?” one boy asked. “Who’s here?”

The Hibsman family of Rancho Palos Verdes was there to greet daughter Tina, coming home from medical school on the same flight as the team. Someone thrust Little League championship placards in their hands and they began waving them.

“We’re caught up in the excitement,” said father Ed Hibsman.

After offloading what a TV cameraman called the “generic” passengers--during which someone in the crowd shouted, “Welcome to Los Angeles, we do this for everyone!”--an airline desk attendant announced the arrival of the Northridge team, and a cheer rang out from gates along an entire wing of the airport.

The players and coaches, wearing their caps and light-blue and white uniforms, exited the plane to face a slew of family members and fans.

The pre-teen boys of summer hugged and high-fived people they’d never met while electronic flashes popped and airport police scurried to keep the surging crowd at bay.

“Wow, this is great,” said second baseman Michael Frost, explaining that the team hadn’t expected such a homecoming after the loss.

“The best feeling in the world,” first baseman Matt Cassel said with a grin, as photographers jockeyed for position around him.

Cassel let out a “whooo!” and began another round of high-fives when it was announced that a local radio station had provided stretch limousines--loaded with pizza and private phones--to whisk them to their Northridge practice field and another welcoming party.

As the boys sped north on the San Diego Freeway in the long white limos, gobbling pepperonis and slugging down Coke, their legend was growing among their Northridge peers.

Awaiting the team’s arrival at the park, Little League friends and former opponents of the champs spat and jawed like old-timers about their own on-field encounters with the now-famous 12-year-olds.

“I got a double off him the only time I ever faced him,” Ricky Wendt, 12, bragged of his only duel with Northridge pitcher Justin Gentile.

Said 11-year-old Mike Fegan, “Those guys get picked up in a limo, and they get to eat pizza. Everybody knows ‘em. They’re famous!”

But by the time the team arrived, the players had pretty much seen and done it all--the Little League World Series, TV appearances, the Pittsburgh airport--and were getting a bit jaded.

Lounging in the limo with a Coke and a pile of half-eaten pizzas at his feet, reserve second baseman John Michael Baca was asked if he remembered that school starts next week.

“I got no idea,” he replied. “Don’t care, either.”

The team will be honored with two parades today. The first starts at Disneyland at 1:30 p.m. After that, players and coaches will rush back to Northridge for a parade at 4:30 p.m. It will begin at Northridge Rec Center, run north on Reseda Boulevard and then west on Devonshire Street to the Little League fields.

Times staff writer Chip Johnson contributed to this story.

Little League Special Section: Inside today’s Times is a special section commemorating the achievements of the Little Leaguers from Northridge. Section S