We covered the 3 local area’s district tournaments and then the state tournaments. Lets finish it off with quick coverage of the 3 state titlists regional campaigns.
Three local programs (Tuckahoe, West Salisbury and NW Washington) headed off to compete in Little League Regional tournaments earlier this month. Maryland and DC’s champions moved 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 moved on to compete in the Southeast Little League Regional, comprised of VA,WV,NC,SC,TN,GA,FL and AL, and this year held in Warner Roberts, Georgia (outside of Macon). The Mid-Atlantic regional ran from 8/1/14-8/10/14 and the Southeast regional ran from 8/2/14 to 8/8/14.
Lets see how our local teams fared:
- Virginia’s champ Tuckahoe American (outside of Richmond): they dropped their first game to South Carolina 11-5, but dominated Tennessee 13-0 in their second game. In the pool final, they got a come-back win over Alabama 10-5 to finish 1st in the pool and advance to the Regional Semis. In the regional semi (which I just happened to catch on ESPN2) they had a pretty amazing 6-run come-back in the final inning to get a walk-off win (Georgia just flat ran out of pitchers and their guys were just lobbing in the ball in the inning) to get a re-match with Tennessee in the regional final. Despite beating them handily earlier in the tournament, Richmond couldn’t repeat the feat, fell apart in the 5th and lost 9-4 with a berth to Williamsport on the line.
- Maryland’s champ West Salisbury got pummeled in its first two games in the mid-Atlantic regional, but then squeaked out a win over New York in the 3rd pool play game. But they lost their last pool play game and finished 5th of 6 regional teams.
- DC’s champ Northwest Washington had a similar experience to West Salisbury, losing its first three regional games (one by slaughter rule) and leaving them eliminated before pool play was completed. They went winless and finished last in pool play.
The mid-Atlantic regional got some national press thanks to the presence of Kayla Roncin on the New Jersey champs Toms River, and then even more press when 13-yr old Mo’Ne Davis threw a shutout in the regional final for the Mid-Atlantic champs from Philadelphia.
The US representatives for the 2014 LLWS will be:
- Mid-Atlantic: Taney Youth Baseball Association (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
- Southeast: South Nashville (Tennessee)
- Great Lakes: Jackie Robinson West (Illinois)
- Midwest: Canyon Lake (South Dakota)
- New England: Cumberland American (Rhode Island)
- Northwest: Lynnwood Pacific (Seattle, Washington)
- Southwest: Pearland East (Texas East) (who beat Lake Charles in the final, the hometown of my wife)
- Western: Mountain Ridge (Nevada)
Here ends the 2014 coverage; unpage.org and llbws.org have all the coverage you need.