听
It goes from the humble to the mighty, from the first steps at quaint local parks such as National, to the 40,000 fans in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, at the ABC/ESPN-broadcast Little League World Series.
The long potential journey has been whittled down to three teams in the District 7 Little League playdowns. Layritz and Lakehill will meet in the district final at 1 p.m. today at National, with the winner advancing to the sa国际传媒 championships from July 20 to 29. Since the provincial tournament is being hosted by Beacon Hill Little League at Hollywood Park in Fairfield, the Beacon Hill team has an automatic host berth.
The sa国际传媒 champion will advance to the Canadian championships, from Aug. 2 to 12, in Medicine Hat, Alta. The national champion will represent sa国际传媒 at the 2017 Little League World Series from Aug. 17-27 in Williamsport.
Layritz, Lakehill and Beacon Hill remain in the hunt to become the first Island team to play in the Little League World Series since Gordon Head in 1999 with a team that included future MLB outfielder Michael Saunders. The first Island team to make it to Williamsport was Esquimalt-Vic West in 1974.
Teams from sa国际传媒 have represented sa国际传媒 25 times in Williamsport, including Hastings last year. sa国际传媒 teams have won the Canadian championship every year since 2005, except for 2013, when East Nepean from Ottawa was the national champion.
No Canadian team has won the Little League World Series. That leaves Layritz, Lakehill and Beacon Hill to dream.
But the story of the District 7 playdowns was tiny host park National, which gave heavily favoured Layritz a big scare before going down 9-7 in the semifinals Saturday, while Lakehill edged Hampton 5-4.
National, established in 1953, is the oldest Little League on the Island. Based in an area of Victoria in which baseball registration has dwindled, the city鈥檚 oldest Little League is also the least likely to get to Williamsport.
鈥淲e almost shocked the world. We were the Bad News Bears re-invented,鈥� proud National coach Josh Roland said of his team鈥檚 run to the district semifinals. But the upset was not to be.
鈥淲ell, I can always visit Williamsport,鈥� Roland quipped.
