In the British under-17 leagues, last month the Southern Conference overcame the Northern and Midlands conference to secure their place in the Europe and Africa qualification stage of the 2014 Little League World Series. This phase of the competition will be held between 6 and 12 July in Novara, Italy.
The Southern Conference All Star team, which will compete as UK’s representative, has now arrived in Italy. It features players from the Herts Harriers, London Mets and LYBL Bulldogs. Team UK has been placed in a very competitive group with Belgium, Spain and the Czech Republic which is a country making major strides and attracting a lot of attention from the multi-million dollar teams of Major League Baseball in America. Team UK’s first game is against the Czechs on Monday, 7 July, under the lights starting at 7:30pm UK time.
In the other group are France, Italy, the Netherlands and Lithuania, who already caused a major shock by beating last year’s winner Italy 9-4 in extra innings last night in the opening game of this competition.
The overall winner will progress to the Little League World Series which is shown live on ESPN around the world. Last year Italy qualified for the World Series by beating Team UK.
Herts Baseball Club’s representatives are infielder Carlos Casal Jr, third baseman and catcher Sebastian Molina and pitcher Zack Longboy.
Over the course of the competition this week most of the games will be televised on the internet (click to view). You can receive alerts about the TV schedule and regular updates from Italy by following Herts Baseball Club on twitter and facebook.
2014 LITTLE LEAGUE (UNDER-17) – EUROPE AND AFRICA QUALIFYING
(the win-loss records of the teams in the groups stage will be updated in orange over the course of the week)
Pool A
Belgium (BEL) 0-3
Czech Republic (CZE) 3-0
Great Britain (GBR) 2-1
Spain (ESP) 1-2
Pool B
France (FRA) 0-3
Italy (ITA) 2-1
Netherland (NED) 1-2
Lithuania (LIT) 3-0
SCHEDULE OF GAMES
(the final scores will be updated in orange as they come in over the course of the week)
Sunday July 6th ( Opening Game )
1 ITA 4 LIT 9 (8:30pm) Novara
Monday July 7th
2 FRA 5 NED 9 (10.00am) Novara
3 ESP 11 BEL 2 (1:30pm) Novara
4 CZE 4 GBR 0 (8:30pm) Novara (game suspended in 3rd inning due to lightning/rain with Czechs leading 3-0, will be resumed 9:30am UK time on Tuesday, 8 July.)
Tuesday July 8th
5 LIT 11 NED 10 (2:30pm) Vercelli
6 BEL 6 CZE 18 (5:30pm) Vercelli
7 FRA 1 ITA 14 (2:30pm) Novara
8 GBR 5 ESP 4 (F/9) (5:30pm) Novara
Wednesday July 9th
9 GBR 11 BEL 4 (10.00am) Novara
10 ESP 9 CZE 14 (2:00pm) Novara
11 LIT 10 FRA 6 (5:30pm) Novara
12 NED 0 ITA 10 (8:30pm) Novara
Thursday July 10th
13 3rd Pool A ESP – 4th Pool B FRA 2:30pm Vercelli
14 3rd Pool B NED – 4th Pool A BEL 5:30pm Vercelli
15 1st Pool A CZE – 2nd Pool B ITA 2:30pm Novara
16 1st Pool B LIT – 2nd Pool A GBR 5:30pm Novara
Friday July 11th
7th – 8th place
17 Looser game 13 – Looser game 14 2:30pm Novara
5th – 6th place
18 Winner game 13 – Winner game 14 5:30pm Novara
Saturday July 12th
3rd – 4th place
19 Looser game 15 – Looser game 16 2:30pm Novara
1st-2nd place – CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
20 Winner game 15 – Winner game 16 5:30pm Novara
Note: For each game the first team indicated in the schedule is the home team .