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!
MOT, Middletown, Delaware
League: MOT Little League
Location:
Middletown, Odessa, Townsend, Delaware
Championships:
Delaware Dist 1
East Region
Record: 8-0
Date Qualified: July 25
Noteworthy:
1st team from Delaware to reach ILWS
Coaches: Kevin Koerner, John Murray, Jeremy Clark.
At the 12-year-old age level, there have only been two Delaware teams to qualify for the Little League World Series since its founding in 1957. So it was a surprise to many when the Delaware District 1 champions, the host of this year's 13-year-old East Regional, swept it without a loss.
But nobody at MOT (pronounced Em-Oh-Tee) felt surprised, because this group had always shown it was capable. State champs as 10-year-olds and 12-year-olds, they returned 11 players from the squad that competed at 12-year-old regionals in Bristol, Connecticut last year. With some imposing 6-foot frames and big-game pitchers like Mason Guth and Jordyn Brown, they expected to make noise.
So when they took the regional stage and calmly dispatched Fairfield American (Connecticut) and dashed around the basepaths to stun Hub City (Maryland), Little League watchers took notice. But when they run-ruled Keystone (Pennsylvania) in the winners' bracket final, they became serious contenders. A much-delayed-by-rain win over South Vineland (New Jersey) Thursday night avoided the logistical nightmare of playing a delayed 'IF' game on Friday and sent MOT to Livermore.
These are heady times for MOT, with state championships at the 10- and 12-year-old age levels joining the 13s and the Senior League softball squad. Those players also start in the World Series this weekend, but in a less exotic (albeit cheaper logistically) destination of Sussex County ... Delaware. The 50/70 boys and their families are dealing with hastily arranged flights to California and, from the sounds of things, are having a ball. We'll see if that translates to the field, starting this afternoon on ESPN+!
| Road to Livermore |
Delaware Dist 1
|
July 5
| at Dover | W | 20-0 (4 inn.) |
July 6
| Camden-Wyoming | W | 18-6 (5 inn.) |
July 8
| Milford | W | 11-0 (5 inn.)
|
East Region
|
July 20
| Fairfield American CT | W | 5-2 |
July 21
| Hub City, Hagerstown MD | W | 5-4 |
July 22
| Greater Nashua NH | W | 18-5 (5 inn.)
|
July 23
| Keystone, Clinton County PA (winners' bracket final) | W | 11-1 (6 inn.) |
July 25
| South Vineland NJ (final) | W | 2-0
|
| Intermediate Baseball World Series |
| July 28 | Vine Ingle, Macon GA | L | 4-6 |
| July 30 | Livermore CA (elim) | L | 5-6 (9 inn.) |
| Aug 1 | South-West Germany (Goodwill) | L | 0-3 |
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