In a year that seems to be generating some sort of baseball Renaissance for the State of Arizona, many would think it would have peaked at the Wildcats’ appearance in the College World Series. However it seems that Arizona may have another chance at taking home a World Series title. This time of the Little League variety.
The Intermediate Little League World Series began just two days ago. The Intermediate League is considered to be the AA of Little League baseball as it is the middle ground between T-ball and the Majors. The Intermediate League has the base paths spread out by 70 feet and the distance from home to the pitcher’s mound is 50 feet, which is smaller in contrast to the Major League’s version of 60 and 90 feet respectively for their field dimensions.
Adopted in 2013, the Intermediate League was developed to help bridge the gap for players to adjust to the true game of baseball and not have kids jumping straight from the 46/60 feet field of T-ball to the much more daunting Major’s size. Thus far the three years have shown quite a bit of balance from all of the teams all over the country.
Teams from the Asia-Pacific region, Canada, Latin America, and all across the United States battle it out to see who will represent their geographic location among the world’s best Little League ball players. The first year of the tournament, Japan’s team took home the title. In 2015, South Korea’s team won it all.
Just two years ago, however a team from Nogales, Arizona ended up standing tall among all the others. This year looks like it might prove to be another good year for Arizona as they are currently hosting this year’s Western bracket, and both of the team’s from the state look to be in contention.
Arizona’s Copper Hills Little League team is currently sitting at a very good 2 – 0 record in their western regional tournament after beating both Alaska and Washington in their first two games in nine day tournament. In both games Copper Hills put up a trouncing on their opponents, beating Alaska by 11 runs and then Washington by 13. Their next game is against Nevada in the bracket could be a tough one as the South Tahoe National team rebounded after a bad loss to the host team, Nogales National, and beat Oregon’s representative by 12 runs.
The Nogales National team started off well but took a tough loss to Hawaii’s Central East Maui team, falling short in an 8 to 3 contest. Nogales National started the tournament with the 19 to nothing shut out win over South Tahoe National and will look to try and get back on the winning track against Oregon in their next game.
Teams will have today thru Friday to put themselves in a spot in the Seed Pool Play part of the tournament come Saturday. With nine teams in the bracket and only eight seeds to get, the race to get to Saturday is already starting to heat up for a lot of these young players. Arizona has two different teams in the pool currently, and with Copper Hills playing as well as they are and Nogales National being a former Little League Champion at this level, we could end up seeing a Western Regional Final between the two. Until then, both teams will have to take it one pitch at a time.