It goes from the humble to the mighty, from the first steps at quaint local parks such as National, to the 40,000 fans in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, at the ABC/ESPN-broadcast Little League World Series.
The long potential journey has been whittled down to three teams in the District 7 Little League playdowns. Layritz and Lakehill will meet in the district final at 1 p.m. today at National, with the winner advancing to the B.C. championships from July 20 to 29. Since the provincial tournament is being hosted by Beacon Hill Little League at Hollywood Park in Fairfield, the Beacon Hill team has an automatic host berth.
The B.C. champion will advance to the Canadian championships, from Aug. 2 to 12, in Medicine Hat, Alta. The national champion will represent Canada at the 2017 Little League World Series from Aug. 17-27 in Williamsport.
Layritz, Lakehill and Beacon Hill remain in the hunt to become the first Island team to play in the Little League World Series since Gordon Head in 1999 with a team that included future MLB outfielder Michael Saunders. The first Island team to make it to Williamsport was Esquimalt-Vic West in 1974.
Teams from B.C. have represented Canada 25 times in Williamsport, including Hastings last year. B.C. teams have won the Canadian championship every year since 2005, except for 2013, when East Nepean from Ottawa was the national champion.
No Canadian team has won the Little League World Series. That leaves Layritz, Lakehill and Beacon Hill to dream.
But the story of the District 7 playdowns was tiny host park National, which gave heavily favoured Layritz a big scare before going down 9-7 in the semifinals Saturday, while Lakehill edged Hampton 5-4.
National, established in 1953, is the oldest Little League on the Island. Based in an area of Victoria in which baseball registration has dwindled, the city’s oldest Little League is also the least likely to get to Williamsport.
“We almost shocked the world. We were the Bad News Bears re-invented,” proud National coach Josh Roland said of his team’s run to the district semifinals. But the upset was not to be.
“Well, I can always visit Williamsport,” Roland quipped.
