SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Zachary Gump is a senior program manager of commercial buildings for Penn College's Clean Air Center.
Gump tells Newswatch 16 he had mixed feelings when he was selected to umpire at the Little League World Series because he and his wife were preparing for another joy this summer.
"Because in November, we found out that we were gonna be having a baby boy, so that happened to coincide with this tournament; luckily, he was born a week—a week ahead of schedule, so he's two weeks old now so you know it was a joy and a little hesitation of what to expect," said Zach Gump, Little League World Series Umpire.
Zachary Gump is in his 18th year of umpiring. The father of three started when he was a junior in high school and fell in love with it.
He went to a Little League camp as part of the selection process, and in February, he received a letter that he was one of 16 individuals from around the globe to be chosen to umpire.
"Nothing can really prepare you til you walk out there for the first time, and you there's about an inning or two where there's still butterflies, there's some nervousness, but at the end of the day, we're here to do a job, and we're here to work a game so at some point that's gotta go away, and we gotta go out there and do what we're here to do," said Gump.
Gump tells us the best part of being an umpire is being able to interact with the players.
"As an adult, you're serving as a mentor, you know, to get that interaction, and you know, after a while, you do a couple of games with the teams they all kinda seem to—you build that rapport, and everybody's working with each other to, you know, have fun out there."
Gump says his family has been helping care for the couple's newborn, and even though he's away during the tournament, it's still an awesome opportunity.
"I'm still really young. I'm 34 years old, so I'm happy to be here, but I'm happy to now go back and get more umpires to this level."
Gump tells Newswatch 16 that his wife and kids were here over the weekend and will be back on Friday.
He will be umpiring until the end of the tournament.