The Little League World Series: Day 1

The Little League World Series is the dream every 11 and 12 year old baseball player wishes to realize. It’s an amazing even that many families and individuals flock to every year to see the seasons’ best young baseball players from around the world. Admission is free, food is cheap and the talent is unbelievable. It has become somewhat of an tradition of mine to take the time to watch the LLWS

For those not familiar with the Little League World series, 16 teams are invited. 8 teams are from different regions of the United States while the other 8 represent different international regions (Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Mexico, Japan and the Caribbean)

The opening match saw the South East region’s team from Tampa, Florida taking on the Midwest’s first ever representative from South Dakota. The team playing out of Citrus Park in Tampa simply outclassed their opponents from Rapid City. They opened up with an 8-run first inning and never looked back. It didn’t take long to see the World Series’ first dominant pitching performance.  Surprisingly it wasn’t just one boy, but three who combined for a no hitter. Tampa rolled to a 10-0 mercy win which only took 4 innings to complete.

The other match from this division took place later on in the day. It had the West region champions from Waipahu, Hawaii taking on the New England region’s champion from Sheldon, Connecticut. It was a low scoring affair which was highlighted by a pair of home runs. After falling down 1-0 early, New England answered with a homer off the bat of Eddie Kochiss, the pitcher. After a rain delay, Hawaii got a two run home run off the bat of Pikai Winchester and never looked back.  The Hawaiians moved to 1-0 with a 3-1 victory.

The opening match in the international realm took place between the team from Surrey, British Columbia and Maracaibo, Venezuela. Maracaibo has produced over 20 MLB baseball players. The Venezuelans are always a force at the LLWS and this year is no different.  They will fight it out with the Japanese for first place in this division. Canada is always an underdog because they just do not have the depth that the other teams have. Venezuela got a homerun from Gustavo Perdomo and never looked back. They got a dominant 7 strikeout performance from pitcher Kevin Morales who was efficient, staying under the 85 pitch limit. The final score was 8-1.

That’s all for now! More later on today’s games!

BT

 

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