Who better to fly the Wareham Gatemen's 2012 championship flag than the bat girl whose charismatic end-of-season speech inspired the boys to go get that ring?

She was depending on them! They couldn't let her down! And they didn't.

Cape Cod Baseball League officials presented the Gatemen with the league's 2012 championship flag at the team's preseason game against the Newport Gulls on Sunday, June 9.

And Gatemen President Tom Gay had a story to tell.

At the team's annual barbecue at the end of last year's regular season games, many people made speeches about the playoffs and championship.

When Gay asked if anyone else had anything to say, Carla Buckley-Tufts, now 12, stood up.

"Carla got up and said, 'See this hand? What's it missing?'" Gay explained. Buckley-Tufts continued: "A ring! I want a ring!"

The Gatemen got Carla her ring, which she proudly showed off at Spillane Field on Sunday.

"The first thing most of the players did" after winning the championship, Gay continued, was say to Carla: "We won you your ring."

And in honor of her motivating speech, Gay handed the championship flag off to Carla.

"You know what to do," he told her.

And with that, she sprinted to the back of Spillane Field and ran it up the flagpole.