Nationals Arm Race

We reviewed the local Little League All Star results for the District tournaments in Northern Virginia and Maryland in mid July.  Here’s a review of how the three local state tournaments went.

Maryland and DC’s champions move on to compete in the Mid-Atlantic Little League Regional, comprised of DC,MD,PA,NJ,NY and DE, and this year held in Bristol Connecticut.  Virginia’s champion moves on to compete in the Southeast Little League Regional, comprised of VA,WV,NC,SC,TN,GA,FL and AL, and this year is being held in Warner Roberts, Georgia (outside of Macon).

Virginia

Virginia State Little League is divided into 16 districts, four of which are local to the DC area.

Local representatives Great Falls, West Springfield American, SYA West (Centreville/Clifton) and Loudoun South headed to the Virginia State Little League tournament this year is in Bridgewater, which ran between 7/17/14 and 7/22/14.   Here’s how our local representatives fared (Pool play results here and the knockout rounds here).  The 16 district champions were divided into four “pools,” and the two best teams from each pool advance to a knockout round.

• Great Falls: Came in 2nd in Pool A and was waxed by SYA West 11-1 en route, and indicator of just how strong SYA is this year.  Advanced to knockout round.
• West Springfield American: Allowed just two runs in three pool games to win Pool B and advance to the knockout round.
• SYA West: Allowed 4 runs in 3 pool games (including wins over Great Falls and Loudoun South) to win Pool A and advance to the knockout round.
• Loudoun South: Unfortunate to be grouped in with powerhouses SYA and Great Falls; eliminated in Pool play.

In the State quarters, the three remaining Northern Virginia teams advanced along with defending state champs Tuckahoe.   In the state semis on 7/21/14, SYA handled West Springfield easly and Tuckahoe eased by Great Falls, likely pitting the two best teams in the state together in the final.  In the State final,Tuckahoe repeated as state champs with a 5-2 victory over SYA.

Virginia State Champion: Tuckahoe American (Richmond)

Links to past Virginia State little League champs: its only up to 2011.  Great Falls was your 2012 champ and Tuckahoe in Richmond was 2013.

Maryland

Maryland is divided into 8 districts (though only 7 of them compete in the State Tournament; read below for the DC “district 3”).   Links to the district results are here.

Maryland’s state tournament finished over the 7/19/14 weekend; West Salisbury came out of the loser’s bracket to sweep Sharpsburg in the state final.

Maryland State Champion: West Salisbury

DC

As a reminder, despite being just a “district” within Maryland, DC’s champion is treated like a state champ and heads directly into the regionals at the “major little league” level.

DC’s playoffs finished up on 7/22/14.   As expected, the two dominant programs in the city (Capitol City and Northwest Washington) met for the title (though they both had to work to get there), which was won on 7/22/14 by Northwest 5-2.

DC “State” Champ: Northwest Washington

Congrats to Tuckahoe, West Salisbury and NW Washington as our three local state champs, heading off to regional play.  Lets hope for a local representative in Williamsport this year.