The amount of success so far has been staggering.

At the sendoff party for the Bristol-bound 11/12-year-old all-stars at Abe Klitzner Field in Warwick on Friday night, teams from all across Warwick North Little League crowded the infield with district and state title banners.

Present were the 11/12-year-old softball all-stars, which fell in the East Regional semifinal after capturing another state championship. Present were the aforementioned players bound for Connecticut this week, seeking a New England title and a spot in Williamsport.

“It’s a dream come true,” Warwick North left fielder D.J. Sollitto said. “I’ve always watched it on TV, and I’d think to myself, ‘Man, what if I’m really on TV playing for this,’ and now I am. So, it’s crazy.”

Positioned between first and second was the 10/11-year-old all-star crew, which claimed the district before falling in the state championship game to Cumberland American. Also around the horn was the Coffee Grinder AAA squad that upended Continental/American for its trophy.

Those are just to name a few of the five state titles and three district crowns that Warwick North earned this year alone. However, arguably the league’s most notable side this season was thousands of miles away from its hometown.

The junior softball all-stars, comprised mainly of last year’s Little League World Series roster, finished third overall at their World Series in Kirkland, Washington. Since both squads that took the top two spots were international teams, Warwick earned the mantle of the top team in the United States.

“It’s bringing more attention to girls’ softball,” Warwick North 11/12-year-old softball all-stars manager Brian D’Amato said. “They just reintroduced softball into the 2020 Olympics, and the girls are excited about that. It’s a dream, and so is the World Series. But guess what, we’ve figured out a way to get there.”

Warwick West Side and Warwick National merged two years ago to form Warwick North, which could secure its third World Series berth across two sports this week in Bristol. National never had a softball program, so little has changed for the softball program. D’Amato said the players have been together on the same travel team for years, helping to foster their success as their talent develops.

“It’s business as usual,” D’Amato said. “What [the merger] did was it brought a lot of good people here. This began five years ago, and now with the ownership of Bombers Elite, which is travel ball, these girls stay together. Thirty-seven out of the 42 players on the all-star teams are travel ball players for our organization. And they live, eat and sleep softball with us. That was the promise that we made to them five years ago.”

Warwick North has already galvanized the community around it, as evidenced by the hundreds who attended viewing parties for the Little League Softball World Series last year to cheer on the squad. That team finished second in the world before making another run in the Junior League World Series, which included an upset over top-seeded Ohio in the knockout stage.

The city will undoubtedly come together again this week, as softball hasn’t been the only success story in Warwick. The baseball all-stars are headed to Bristol, Connecticut, for the New England regional, after the first state title for either West Side or National since 1985.

Four members of the West Side state championship squad, including Jerry Sabatelli, and two members and an assistant coach from the 2014 Cumberland American team that represented New England came to speak to the 12s at their sendoff celebration.

Senators and representatives from across Warwick and the state, as well as Mayor Scott Avedisian, also offered their congratulations and a $12,500 check to the league.

All of those who spoke encouraged the players to remember the moments they will spend in Bristol and to make the city proud. While the team will undoubtedly have an experience they will never forget, it will have to re-focus quickly to be ready for what the best teams in New England have to offer.

“We want to get down there, I want to get the kids acclimated to the environment, have some fun,” Warwick North manager Ken Rix said of preparations for his team, which left for Bristol at 9 a.m. on Saturday. “Sunday is all down to business. We’ve got to focus on the games.

While it wasn’t a simple assignment to bring the two leagues together, Rix said that “a lot of hard work behind the scenes” helped to make the merger a resounding success thus far.

“It wasn’t always an easy task to merge the two different groups, but everybody put their differences aside and realized it was best for the kids and I think that was the most important part of the whole league merger,” Rix said. “We’ve all learned to work together, and now we see the fruits of our labor.”

Rix referenced one occasion in particular when Warwick North was in the District 3 final against South Kingstown. After a heavy rainstorm made the field nearly unplayable, Warwick North was faced with the decision of whether it would postpone and throw off both teams’ schedules, or if the community could rally and get the field prepared in time.

The latter occurred and Warwick North pulled off a near-miracle. Puddles in the infield, on the mound and around home were vacuumed out, cleared and patched up to make the field look brand new. Parents and relatives volunteered their time and resources to ensure the kids got the game in.

“The next thing I knew, we had 20-25 people out on this field trying to get it prepared and trying to play a baseball game,” Rix told the crowd on Friday, thanking the community. “That was one of the most emotional moments. That’s pretty cool stuff, that they would come out for these kids so they could play a game.”

The ability to come together has paid dividends for Warwick North in just two years since the merger. The softball squads have made a home for themselves in the World Series, while the baseball teams are looking to make Warwick a “baseball city” yet again.

It may not be long before Warwick is recognized nationally for one of the best softball and baseball programs in the world.

“We all worked together from day one to make it happen,” Warwick North President Dave Palumbo said. “It’s a hard-working, blue-collar community. These kids go year-round, we put the work in, they’re well-coached. That sets us aside from everyone else.”