2024 LLIWS Preview: Hills, Australia

I have the privilege of calling a Little League World Series once again this year! This will mark my third consecutive call of the Intermediate 50/70 Baseball World Series, held from July 28-August 4 in Livermore, California. It's for 13-year-olds, played on a field slightly larger than Little League but still smaller than Junior League (50 feet from the pitcher's mound to home plate, 70 feet between the bases). Following this tournament and its qualifiers closely over the last three years, I've come to expect fantastic action and stories, and I'm looking forward to bringing them to you again this year!

The 2024 Intermediate World Series will air on ESPN+, and I will lay out the backstory for one of the 12 competing teams each day from  now until the tournament's start on July 28. I hope you'll read along and remember a nugget here and there when you watch the tournament!

Hills, Australia

League:
Hills Junior Baseball Association
Location:
Baulkam Hills, New South Wales, Australia
Championships:

Australia
Record: 5-0
Date Qualified: May 30
Noteworthy:
2nd Australian league and 14th overall to appear at both 12-year-old (2023) and 13-year-old (2024) World Series in consecutive years.
Coaches: Jarrad Salmon, Brett Drummond, Andrew Crane

Hills has become a familiar sight in Williamsport, winning four of the last eight Australian titles at the 12-year-old age level. In 2016, the team from the Hills District of Sydney even finished fourth in the international bracket after upsetting Curaçao. But this will be the league's first trip to Livermore, where Australian teams are 0-8.

Hills returns 10 players from last year's Williamsport squad and barely appeared to break a sweat in sweeping through five games (three of them run-rule wins) at the Australian national championships in May. Righty Adrian Jankuloski and lefty Jet Creamer, who each started in Williamsport last year, both return as key arms. Manager Jarrad Salmon, an assistant coach and parent who watched from the stands last year, takes over in the dugout.

The experience of taking international champion Pabao, Curaçao down to the wire in their Williamsport opener last year should provide Hills confidence ahead of a likely Game 1 matchup against West Seoul, Korea. Australian baseball is on a high right now following the No. 1 selection of Travis Bazzana (who played his Little League ball for Hills rival Ryde Hawks), so enthusiasm is high. What's more, Hills and Pabao players have been in contact since that tight contest in Williamsport and are looking forward to a rematch of some kind - ping-pong, if not baseball - in California!

Road to Livermore
Australia Region
May 27	Athletics (Victoria) (group)	W	7-2
May 28	Southern Titans (Western Australia) (group)	W	110 (5)
May 29	Gold Coast (Queensland) (group)	W	7-5
May 30	Mets (Victoria) (semifinal)	W	15-2 (5)
May 31	Athletics (Victoria) (final)	W	12-0 (5)
Intermediate Baseball World Series
July 29	West Seoul KOR	L	1-8
July 30	Diamond Baseball, Boisbriand QC CAN (elim)	W	3-2
July 31	Amelia Guaynabo PR (elim)	L	3-8