Photo by James Mitchell
Michigan was represented in the JLWS by all-stars from Midland, who topped the USA Central Division, seen here during their 4-2 victory Wednesday over USA East champs from Newark, Del. Midland finished the tournament with a 1-3 record.
By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TAYLOR — Players came from around the globe for a week’s worth of baseball that ended with yesterday’s Junior League World Series championship games at Heritage Park.
JLWS communications director Dave Gorgon said the five-day, round-robin tournament last week — a schedule threatened with record-setting rain and regional flooding — brought out the best of the best heading into the final contest.
“Memories are being made,” Gorgon said. “History is being made.”
For more than three decades — last week marked the 34th annual competition — the JLWS in Taylor played host to the best 13- and 14-year-old players from around the world. Major League Baseball stars including Gary Sheffield and Derek Bell had once roamed the Heritage Park field in pursuit of a championship, and last week’s games likely featured future pro ball players.
Ten teams participated in last week’s games representing five U.S. districts and five global regions, each of which had won regional or national tournaments to qualify. Each team played in four games during the week before Friday’s contests for the US and International titles, and the winners faced off Saturday for the championship title. (Final results were unavailable at press time.)
USA Southwest champs from Corpus Christi, Texas faced USA West champs from Manhattan Beach, California for the US title; Asia-Pacific champs from Tai-Chung, Chinese Taipei, played Latin America champions from Willemstad, Curacao, for the International crown.
For more information and complete results of the Series go to www.cityoftaylor.com/juniorleagueworldseries, or the JLWS page on Facebook.
(James Mitchell can be reached at jmitchell@bewickpublications.com.)