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'26 Little League World Series (8/19-30) thread

Tom McAndrew

Tom McAndrew

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The 2026 Little League World Series takes place on Aug. 19 through 30th, in Williamsport, PA. Please use this thread for all pre-tournament, in-tournament, and post-tournament discussion of the '26 LLWS.

There are 10 USA teams in the USA competition, and 10 international teams in the International competition. The winners of the USA competition and the International competition meet at the end of the tournament to crown the winner of the '26 LLWS.

The teams in the competition are:

USA:
- Great Lakes Region: West Side Little League (Hamilton, OH)
- Metro Region: Bayonee Central Little League (Bayonne, NJ)
- Mid-Atlantic Region: East Side Little League (West Chester, PA)
- Midwest Region: Davenport Northwest Little League (Davenport, IA)
- Mountain Region: Paseo Verde Little League (Henderson, NV)
- New England Region: Bridgewater Joe Lazaro Little League (Bridgewater, MA)
- Northwest Region: Soundview Little League (Tacoma, WA)
- Southeast Region: Phenix City Youth Baseball Little League (Phenix City, AL)
- Southwest Region: Boerne Little League (Boerne, TX)
- West Region: Sweetwater Valley Little League (Bonita, CA)

International:
- Asia-Pacific Region: West Seoul Little League (Seoul, South Korea)
- Australia Region: Ryde Red Little League (New South Wales, Australia)
- Canadian Region: Little Mountain Little League (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
- Caribbean Region: Los Nocionales Little League (Santiago, Dominican Republic)
- Curacao Region: Pariba Little League (Willemstad, Curacao)
- Europe-Africa Region: South Czech Republic Little League (Brno, Czechia)
- Japan Region: Joto Little League (Hamamatsu City, Tokyo, Japan)
- Latin America Region: Ministerio Sobre Las Alas Del Aguila Little League (Leon, Nicaragua)
- Mexico Region: Municipal De Tijuana Little League (Tijuana, Mexico)
- Panama Region: David Doleguita Little League (Chiriqui, Panama)
 
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Tom McAndrew

Tom McAndrew

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Day 1 (8/19) Schedule:

G1: INT - Latin America vs. Caribbean
G2: USA - Northwest vs. Southeast
G3: INT - Canada vs. Asia-Pacifico
G4: USA - New England vs. Metro
 
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Tom McAndrew

Tom McAndrew

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Day 1 (8/19) Results:

G1: INT - Latin America - 2, Caribbean - 1
G2: USA - Northwest - 2, Southeast - 0
G3: INT - Asia-Pacific - 7, Canada - 0
G4: USA -Metro - 2, New England - 1

Congrats to the above winners.

Day 2 (8/20) Schedule:

G5: INT - Australia vs. Mexico
G6: USA - Great Lakes vs. Mountain
G7: INT - Japan vs. Curacao
G8: USA - West vs. Midwest
 
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Tom McAndrew

Tom McAndrew

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Rain washed out all the games scheduled for 8/20. So, the new Day 2 (8/21) is going to be a busy schedule:

G5: INT - Australia vs. Mexico
G6: USA - Great Lakes vs. Mountain
G7: INT - Japan vs. Curacao
G8: USA - West vs. Midwest
G9: INT - Latin America vs. Panama
G10: USA - Northwest vs. Southwest
G11: INT - Asia-Pacific vs. Europe-Africa
G12: USA - Mid-Atlantic vs. Metro

G12 is the first game for the team from PA (Mid-Atlantic), and the second game for the team from NJ (Metro).

Hopefully the weather enables them to play all 12 games.
 
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BCS PSU

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MtNittany said:
The loser's bracket in this tournament isn't great. You never know though.
Click to expand...
That PA team doesn’t appear to have the offense to be a major player; way too many unproductive at bats and inability to put balls in play, which is more than half the battle in LL.

Also, that NJ team is a very well-coached and fundamentally sound team.
 
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Bison13

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With teams now batting the entire lineup, you can definitely see a depth issue for some of these teams. Some of the rosters have kids taking very weak swings in the bottom four or five spots of the order.
I wonder if part of that is that they just aren’t getting the same amount of high-level travel kids who play on the bigger diamond to come back for the local little league games so that they can play in the Little League tournaments
 
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BCS PSU

All-Conference
Jun 2, 2001
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2,036
113
Bison13 said:
With teams now batting the entire lineup, you can definitely see a depth issue for some of these teams. Some of the rosters have kids taking very weak swings in the bottom four or five spots of the order.
I wonder if part of that is that they just aren’t getting the same amount of high-level travel kids who play on the bigger diamond to come back for the local little league games so that they can play in the Little League tournaments
Click to expand...
That’s exactly the reason. Many of the best kids at that age don’t even play LL; they only play travel ball. I compare it to travel hockey teams and high school hockey teams here in WPA; the average travel hockey team has a much deeper roster than the average high school team, and a lot of travel hockey players don’t play high school hockey. Likewise, the average 11 to 13 year old travel baseball team would destroy most of these LL teams that are playing in the World Series.
 
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Tom McAndrew

Tom McAndrew

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Day 2 (8/21) Results:

G5: INT - Mexico - 7, Australia - 1
G6: USA - Mountain - 6, Great Lakes - 5
G7: INT - Curacao - 6, Japan - 0
G8: USA - Midwest - 1, West - 0
G9: INT - Latin America - 6, Panama - 4
G10: USA - Northwest - 4, Southwest - 3
G11: INT - Asia-Pacific - 5, Europe-Africa - 0
G12: USA - Metro - 3, Mid-Atlantic - 1

Day 3 (8/22) Schedule:

G13: INT - Canada vs. Australia
G14: USA - New England vs. Great Lakes
G15: INT - Caribbean vs. Japan
G16: USA - Southeast vs. West
 
MtNittany

MtNittany

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BCS PSU said:
That’s exactly the reason. Many of the best kids at that age don’t even play LL; they only play travel ball. I compare it to travel hockey teams and high school hockey teams here in WPA; the average travel hockey team has a much deeper roster than the average high school team, and a lot of travel hockey players don’t play high school hockey. Likewise, the average 11 to 13 year old travel baseball team would destroy most of these LL teams that are playing in the World Series.
Click to expand...
Most of the players in Williamsport are already playing "travel ball". The fact that they choose to participate, and play w/ their friends and neighbors in Little League is a credit to them. It's probably fun to not be a mercenary for a change. Just a kid.

Point me to a study that shows that the LLBB dimensions, base running rules, etc. inhibit a young baseball player's growth. LL has Senior League (13-15). Just wait a year to lead off and steal bases.
 
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Bison13

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May 26, 2013
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MtNittany said:
Most of the players in Williamsport are already playing "travel ball". The fact that they choose to participate, and play w/ their friends and neighbors in Little League is a credit to them. It's probably fun to not be a mercenary for a change. Just a kid.

Point me to a study that shows that the LLBB dimensions, base running rules, etc. inhibit a young baseball player's growth. LL has Senior League (13-15). Just wait a year to lead off and steal bases.
Click to expand...
There’s not a study, of course, but as someone who’s coached high school baseball or above for 25 years, I do think kids who are bigger and stronger at 12 years old and are still playing on the 46/60 diamond, it does hinder their development and some even regress from it. It’s not all kids, but the ones who are physically bigger or stronger and ready to play on a 50/70 diamond by 12 years old. These kids that are doing it in the LLWS are doing both so it’s not hurting them.
I too give them lots of props and respect for playing with their local buddies if that’s actually what’s happening. What goes on at the local little league here is there’s one travel team that gets picked at the beginning of the year and those players get split up amongst the other Little League teams in there community league. That originally selected travel team plays weeknight games on the smaller diamond and then does tournaments on the weekend on the bigger diamond. they then have another tryout at the completion of the Little League season, but outside of maybe one kid losing their spot, it’s essentially the travel team that was selected earlier in the year.
 
MtNittany

MtNittany

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Bison13 said:
There’s not a study, of course, but as someone who’s coached high school baseball or above for 25 years, I do think kids who are bigger and stronger at 12 years old and are still playing on the 46/60 diamond, it does hinder their development and some even regress from it. It’s not all kids, but the ones who are physically bigger or stronger and ready to play on a 50/70 diamond by 12 years old. These kids that are doing it in the LLWS are doing both so it’s not hurting them.
I too give them lots of props and respect for playing with their local buddies if that’s actually what’s happening. What goes on at the local little league here is there’s one travel team that gets picked at the beginning of the year and those players get split up amongst the other Little League teams in there community league. That originally selected travel team plays weeknight games on the smaller diamond and then does tournaments on the weekend on the bigger diamond. they then have another tryout at the completion of the Little League season, but outside of maybe one kid losing their spot, it’s essentially the travel team that was selected earlier in the year.
Click to expand...
Another thing is that at its core, LLBB isn't really about these kids. It's also about the Timmy Lupis's and Tanner Boyle's of the world who aren't All Stars and "Just wanna play ball".
 
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