Maryland’s West Salisbury Little League Wins Mid-Atlantic Region, Completes Field for the 2007 Little League Baseball World Series
PrintWILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (Aug. 13, 2007) – Craig East showed West
Salisbury Little League from Salisbury, Md., the way to Williamsport
with an 11-strikeout, two-hit performance, and a two-run home run in
a 4-0 Mid-Atlantic Region Championship game victory Monday night at
Breen Field in Bristol, Conn.
West Salisbury Little League’s win concluded the 16 region
tournaments in Little League Baseball for children league-age 11-12,
and completes the field for the 61st Little League Baseball World
Series. The first game of the 2007 World Series is scheduled to
begin on Friday at 2 p.m., and will be televised on ESPN.
Council Rock Northampton Little League from Richboro, Pa., 4-2 in
region play, and West Salisbury Little League, 3-3 in the six-team
regional tournament, battled to a scoreless tie entering the sixth
inning, as East and opposing pitcher Jeff Miller (nine strikeouts)
were both working on two-hitters.
A lead-off double in the top of the inning by Seth Windmuller
started a four-run rally that proved to be the final score.
Following an intentional walk to Connor Shockley, Canaan Cropper
came through with a two-run single to right field for a 2-0 Maryland
lead.
On Miller’s 85th pitch of the game, East set the final score with a
two-run homer to left field. East closed out the game with a
fielder’s choice force out and consecutive strikeouts. The win
avenged Maryland’s 3-1 lost to the Pennsylvania state champions
earlier in the regional tournament
Maryland has participated in the Little League Baseball World Series
four times since its first appearance in 1950. Most recently, South
Caroline Little League won the 2004 Mid-Atlantic Region
championship. The state of Maryland has never reached the World
Series championship game.
West Salisbury Little League completes the field for the 2007 Little
League Baseball World Series which includes, Lake Oswego Little
League joins Chandler National Little League from Chandler, Ariz.;
West Side Little League from Hamilton, Ohio; Walpole American Little
League from Walpole, Mass.; Coon Rapid National Little League from
Coon Rapids, Minn.; Lubbock Western Little League from Lubbock,
Texas; Warner Robins American Little League from Warner Robins, Ga.;
White Rock-South Surrey Little League from White Rock, British
Columbia, Canada; Windmills Apeldoorn Little League from the
Netherlands; 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 carried 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.
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.
