East County fans got a chance to see a Little League Baseball World Series team in the making when Sweetwater Valley Little League’s 12U all-star team participated in this year’s California Section 7 tournament at the Spring Valley Little League complex.
California District 66 Little League hosted the four-team event July 11-16 that included District 66 champion Encanto, District 41 champion Fletcher Hills and District 22 champion Imperial besides District 42 champion Sweetwater Valley.
Sweetwater Valley roared through the tournament with three consecutive run-rule wins: 10-0 over both Fletcher Hills and Encanto and 11-1 over Imperial in the championship game.
The newly minted Section 7 champions only seemed to gain momentum, tacking on eight more wins — three by shutouts — to punch their ticket to South Williamsport, Pa.
SVLL captured the Southern California state title with a 5-0 record to advance to last week’s Little League World Series West Region tournament in toasty San Bernardino.
The SoCal champions dismantled Northern California champion San Ramon Valley, 16-4, on Aug. 9 and followed with a 6-0 win over Hawaii champion Kawaihau Community Little League two days later.
The San Diego County kingpins defeated Hawaii a second time, 11-3, last Friday to win the tournament title and advance as one of 10 regional champions to the United States bracket.
Sweetwater Valley was poised to meet Midwest champion Davenport Northwest Little League from Davenport, Iowa, in Thursday’s LLBWS opener.
Sweetwater Valley carried a 15-1 record and 12-game winning streak into South Williamsport.
“This whole experience has been absolutely amazing,” Sweetwater Valley league president Joe Griffin said. “The way the boys are playing right now is incredible. We knew that Hawaii was going to be tough, but we also knew that the boys were ready.
“Thinking about the team and the possibility of making it to the World Series, the coaches believed we had a chance from the first practice. The boys are very talented and complement each other really well.”
That’s been the secret to success.
Sweetwater Valley becomes the fifth team from California District 42 Little League since 2009 to participate in the iconic youth baseball tournament.
SVLL, representing the Southern California, broke open a scoreless game with two runs in the bottom of the third inning in last Friday’s regional final.
Julian Sevilla started off SVLL with a walk and advanced to third base on an ensuing single by teammate Mateo Ruiz. A bunt placed two runners in scoring position. Both Sevilla and
Ruiz came round on a single by Teagan Cochran for the 2-0 lead.
The SoCal champions made it 5-0 with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Grant Milke singled and Isaac Ramirez stroked another single to place two runners on base.
Tempe Tran singled to score Mielke. Ramirez advanced to third base on a passed ball as the Hawaiians’ pitching suddenly began to show cracks.
Ramirez scored on another passed ball to stake SVLL to a 4-0 lead. Tran later scored on a wild pitch to increase the lead to 5-0.
But the game was not over. Hawaii put its two lead runners on base with back-to-back singles to start the top of the fifth inning with Kirk still on the mound. Waika Doctolero followed with a third consecutive hit – a home run – to make the score 5-3.
Kirk walked the next batter, Rush Pegeder, but struck out the batter after that for the first out of the frame. The District 42 champions got out of hot water with an inning-ending double play: Kirk to shortstop Ruiz to first baseman Jesus Cuadra.
Three more outs and maybe an insurance run and Williamsport was within reach.
It was. The SoCal champs made it happen with six more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Ruiz drew a lead-off walk and was bunted to second base by teammate James Griffin. A ground out left Ruiz at second base with two out. Hawaii issued an intentional walk to Kirk to put two runners on base.
It backfired.
Ruiz took third base and Kirk took second base on the same wild pitch. Ruiz made it 6-3 on a passed ball and Cuadra singled home Kirk for a 7-3 lead.
Hawaii failed to get another put out before the roof caved in.
Leo Gonzales walked to push Cuadra to second base. Mielke walked to load the bases.
Ramirez, the winning pitcher in the team’s 6-0 semifinal win over Hawaii earlier in the week on Tuesday, put an exclamation mark on the Sweetwater Valley victory with a grand slam.
11-3 Southern California.
Down by eight runs with one inning left to make a monstrous comeback, Hawaii opened the top of the sixth inning with a groundout. A second groundout left Hawaii with one out remaining against Gonzals in relief of Kirk.
SVLL punched its ticket to the 2026 Little League World Series on a game-ending strikeout by Gonzales after issuing a two-out walk.
Kirk earned the win on the mound by scattering seven hits over five innings with three runs allowed, one walk and seven strikeouts.
The offense was spread around by the winners. Ruiz had two hits, scored two runs and drove in four runs. Ramirez had two hits and scored two runs. Mielke had two hits and scored one run. Tran had one hits, scored one run and drove in one run. Cochran had one hit and two RBI while Cuadra scored one run and had one RBI.
Kirk, Gonzales and Sevilla each scored one run in what turned into a rout. Both teams finished with seven hits.
This is the second Sweetwater Valley all-star team to make it to the Little League World Series after the Sweetwater Sluggers accomplished the deed in 2015 under manager Ward Lannom. That SVLL team finished third in the U.S. Bracket.
It’s the fifth District 42 team to do so. Park View has made two pilgrimages to Pennsylvania. The Blue Bombers made history for District 42 by winning the 2009 world championship and Eastlake Little League followed four years later with the U.S. championship and a runner-up finish to Japan.
Twenty teams will vie for the world championship title – 10 in the United States bracket and 10 in the intentional bracket.
Municipal de Tijuana Little League will represent Mexico in the international bracket with a 7-1 record. The Mexican champions will play Australia (Ryde Little League from Sydney, New South Wales) in their opener also on Thursday.
Tijuana is representing Mexico for the third time in the LLWS after previous appearances in 2013 and 2023. Mexico lost to Japan in the intentional final in 2013 to finish third overall.
The 2023 team made another deep run with a trip to the semifinals.
Tijuana defeated Matamorrs, 8-2, in the Mexican national tournament final to punch its ticket to South Williamsport this year.
