Netherlands Wins First Region Championship; Will Represent Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2007 Little League Baseball World Series

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WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (Aug. 8, 2007) – A team from Apeldoorn, Netherlands, became the first from that country to earn a berth in the Little League Baseball World Series by winning the Europe, Middle East and Africa Region Tournament on Wednesday in Kutno, Poland.

The Windmills Apeldoorn Little League defeated Lazio Little League from Lazio, Italy, 7-0, in the championship game. Windmills Apeldoorn Little League finished the 11-team tournament with a 7-0 record.

A team from the Netherlands has never participated in the Little League Baseball World Series. Windmills Apeldoorn Little League first chartered with Little League Baseball and Softball in 2003. For the 2007 regular season, the Netherlands had nearly 200 players participating in the Little League Baseball program (league-age 11-12).

Windmills Apeldoorn Little League joins Arabian American Little League from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; Pabao Little League of Willemstad, Curacao; Tokyo Kitasuna Little League of Tokyo, Japan; Seguro Social Little League of Mexicali, Mexico; Li-Shing Little League of Taichung, Chinese Taipei; and La Victoria Little League of Maracaibo, Venezuela, as participants in the 2007 Little League Baseball World Series.

The World Series championship game can be seen live on ABC television at 3:30 p.m., on Sunday, Aug. 26. ABC also will televise the International championship game on Saturday, Aug. 25 at 12:30 p.m., followed by the United States championship at 3:30 p.m.

The 2007 World Series will be the first operated under the new eight-year television contract agreement with ESPN/ABC. Five games will be televised on ABC. This will be the second year that all of the World Series games will be televised in high definition. For the sixth year since the tournament expanded from eight to 16 teams in 2001, every team will have games on national television.

All 32 games of the World Series are expected to be televised again this year. Sixteen World Series games will be televised on ESPN and 11 will be televised on ESPN2.

In addition, the ESPN family of networks will carry all eight of the U.S. Regional Championship finals in the Little League Baseball division. The U.S. regional finals have been televised by ESPN and ESPN2 every year since 1997.

The next berth in the Little League Baseball World Series will be decided on Thursday when the Southeast Region Tournament in St. Petersburg, Fla., is due to end. The game will be televised live on ESPN beginning at 8 p.m.

The U.S. region finals, which will be televised live, are: Thursday, Aug. 9 - Southeast (St. Petersburg, Fla., 8 p.m., ESPN); Friday, Aug. 10 - Southwest (Waco, Texas, 8 p.m., ESPN); Saturday; Aug. 11 - Midwest (Indianapolis, noon, ESPN); Mid-Atlantic (Bristol, Conn., 2 p.m., ESPN); Great Lakes (Indianapolis, 7 p.m., ESPN); West (San Bernardino, Calif., 9 p.m., ESPN); Sunday, Aug 12 – Northwest (San Bernardino, Calif., 10 p.m., ESPN2); Monday, Aug. 13 – New England (Bristol, Conn., 8 p.m., ESPN2). All game times are Eastern U.S. time.

Little League Baseball and Softball is the largest organized youth sports program in the world, with 2.7 million participants in all 50 states and more than 75 other countries.