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FREMONT — For more than a month, 15 hometown Little Leaguers played like champs. On Sunday, they returned to a hero’s welcome.

Just one day after the Niles-Centerville squad fell 9-7 in the Senior Little League World Series, about 30 locals — several without kids on the team — traveled to the Oakland International Airport to show their appreciation.

As the players, mostly sophomores and juniors at Washington High School, headed past security to pick up their bags, they were met with streamers, horns and cheers for a job well done.

“It was really good,” said catcher Casey Jennings, who homered in the championship game. Just as neat, he said, were the signs and balloons that neighbors and friends left for him outside his Second Street home, including one that covered his entire front fence.

“When my girlfriend came over, and I was just looking at the signs, I was like, ‘Wow,’”‰” he said.

The boys likely will get one more chance to bask in their neighborhood’s appreciation. The city and Little League officials tentatively have scheduled a parade in their honor for Saturday along Niles Boulevard and into Niles Community Park, league officials said.

Although the team didn’t win the championship, just getting to the finals was a huge achievement for the club, nearly all of whose players come from a 15-block radius in Fremont’s Niles district.

“In all of our eyes, they were winners,” said Niles-Centerville Little League President Moira Jacobs. “We never could have imagined they could go that far.”

Jennings was surprised, too, especially considering that many of their opponents came from Little Leagues with more players. “I was happy going to regionals,” he said. “I figured the competition there was just going to be amazing, but we just blew by them. We just wanted it a little bit more.”

The club has been playing tournaments since early July, and has spent most of the past three weeks in Southern California for the regional finals and in Bangor, Maine, for the World Series.

During that time, they played nearly every day.

In humid Maine, time spent away from the diamond was mostly centered at their hotel’s swimming pool and in its air-conditioned rooms, Jennings said.

The championship, which they lost to a team from Houston, is the last Little League game for several team members, including Jennings, a three-sport star at Washington.

“I can’t grieve about it too much. I’ve got to go to football practice today,” he said. “Second in the world sounds great, but first would sound so much better. But it was a good ride, and it was fun.”

The league spent more than $15,000 in flights and hotel accommodations to make sure every player had a family member with him in Maine.