| 2007 Little League World Series | |
|---|---|
| Dates | August 17 – August 26 |
| Teams participating | 16 |
| Champion | Warner Robins American Little League Warner Robins, Georgia |
| Runner-up | Tokyo Kitasuna Little League Tokyo, Japan |
The 2007 Little League World Series was a baseball tournament held August 17 through August 26 in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Eight teams from the United States and eight from throughout the world competed to decide the winner of the 61st installment of the Little League World Series. It was televised on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN on ABC. On August 26, 2007 the USA champion from Warner Robins, Georgia defeated the international champion from Tokyo, Japan 3–2 in 8 innings (Little League regulation games are 6 innings) on a walk-off home run by Dalton Carriker to win the 2007 Little League World Series. This was the second straight year a team from Georgia won the championship after a team from Columbus, Georgia won in 2006.
The series was marked by dramatic finishes. The championship final was the third elimination game in this year's edition to end with a walk-off homer. In the international bracket, one of the semifinals ended with the team from Willemstad, Curaçao defeating the team from Maracaibo, Venezuela on a 3-run, come-from-behind walk-off shot in the 7th inning. The Curaçao team would be the victim of a come-from-behind walkoff grand slam in the international final two days later.
Games were held in the two stadiums located at Little League headquarters in South Williamsport:
Contents |
Between five and sixteen teams competed in regional tournaments to progress to the Little League World Series, which varied from straight-knockout competitions (Japan) to the group/elimination format used in the United States. 2007 was the first year that Japan received its own regional playoff, with the Asia (Japan's former home) and Pacific regions merging to create the new Asia-Pacific group.
| Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walpole, MA New England Region Walpole American |
Salisbury, MD Mid-Atlantic Region West Salisbury |
Willemstad Caribbean Region Pabao |
Mexicali Mexico Region Seguro Social |
| Lake Oswego, OR Northwest Region Lake Oswego |
Chandler, AZ West Region Chandler National |
Tokyo Japan Region Tokyo Kitasuna |
Taichung, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) Asia-Pacific Region Li-Shing |
| Warner Robins, GA Southeast Region Warner Robins American |
Lubbock, TX Southwest Region Lubbock Western |
Surrey, BC Canada Region White Rock/South Surrey |
Apeldoorn Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Region Windmills |
| Hamilton, OH Great Lakes Region West Side |
Coon Rapids, MN Midwest Region Coon Rapids National |
Dhahran Transatlantic Region Arabian American |
Maracaibo Latin America Region La Victoria |
The top two teams in each pool move on to their respective semifinals. The winners of each met on August 26 to play for the Little League World Championship. Teams marked in green qualified to the knockout stage, while teams marked in red were eliminated.
Ties are broken based on records in head-to-head competition among tied teams. In the event of a three-way tie for first place, the tie is broken by calculating the ratio of runs allowed to defensive innings played for all teams involved in the tie. The team with the lowest runs-per-defensive-inning ratio is ranked first and advances. Second place is determined by the head-to-head result of the other two teams. If the three-way tie is for 2nd place, the runs-per-defensive-inning ratio rule is used. The team with the lowest run ratio advances, the other two teams are eliminated.
| Rank | Region | Record | Runs Allowed | Run Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southeast | 2–1 | 15 | 0.882 |
| 2 | Northwest | 2–1 | 10 | 0.588 |
| 3 | New England | 1–2 | 11 | 0.647 |
| 4 | Great Lakes | 1–2 | 11 | 0.647 |
| Rank | Region | Record | Runs Allowed | Run Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southwest | 2–0 | 1 | 0.083 |
| 2 | West | 2–1 | 13 | 0.722 |
| 3 | Midwest | 1–2 | 18 | 1.000 |
| 4 | Mid-Atlantic | 0–2 | 20 | 1.667 |
| Pool | Away | Score | Home | Score | Time (Venue) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 17 | ||||||
| A | Great Lakes | 2 | New England | 3 | 2:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium) | |
| A | Southeast | 9 | Northwest | 4 | 8:00 pm (Lamade Stadium) | |
| August 18 | ||||||
| B | Mid-Atlantic | 6 | West | 16 | 3:00 pm (Lamade Stadium) | |
| B | Southwest | 6 | Midwest | 0 | 6:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium) | |
| A | Great Lakes | 10 | Southeast | 2 | 8:00 pm (Lamade Stadium) | |
| August 19 | ||||||
| B | West | 1 | Southwest | 5 | Noon (Volunteer Stadium) | |
| A | Northwest | 1 | New England | 0 | 3:30 pm (Lamade Stadium) | |
| B | Mid-Atlantic | 3 | Midwest | 4 | 8:00 pm (Lamade Stadium) | |
| August 21 | ||||||
| A | Great Lakes | 1 | Northwest | 6 | 3:00 pm (Lamade Stadium) | |
| August 22 | ||||||
| A | New England | 1 | Southeast | 8 | 11:00 am (Volunteer Stadium)[1] | |
| B | West | 9 | Midwest | 2 | 4:00 pm (Lamade Stadium) | |
| B | Southwest | Mid-Atlantic | Canceled[2] | |||
| Rank | Region | Record | Runs Allowed | Run Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 2–0 | 4 | 0.333 |
| 2 | Caribbean | 2–1 | 12 | 0.667 |
| 3 | Canada | 1–2 | 18 | 1.059 |
| 4 | Transatlantic | 0–2 | 15 | 1.500 |
| Rank | Region | Record | Runs Allowed | Run Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latin America | 3–0 | 4 | 0.222 |
| 2 | Asia-Pacific | 2–1 | 5 | 0.300 |
| 3 | Mexico | 1–2 | 16 | 1.000 |
| 4 | EMEA | 0–3 | 43 | 3.909 |
| Pool | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | Score | Time (Venue) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 17 | ||||||
| C | Caribbean | 3 | Japan | 10 | 4:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium) | |
| D | Latin America | 2 | Asia-Pacific | 1 | 6:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium) | |
| August 18 | ||||||
| C | Transatlantic | 5 | Canada' | 13 | 11:00 am (Lamade Stadium) | |
| D | Mexico | 11 (F/4) | EMEA | 1 | 1:00 pm (Lamade Stadium) | |
| August 19 | ||||||
| D | EMEA | 1 | Asia-Pacific | 11 (F/5) | 4:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium) | |
| C | Transatlantic | 0 | Caribbean | 2 | 7:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium) | |
| August 21 | ||||||
| C | Canada | 1 | Japan | 7 | 1:00 pm (Lamade Stadium) | |
| D | EMEA | 2 | Latin America | 21 (F/4) | 4:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium) | |
| August 22 | ||||||
| D | Asia-Pacific | 4 | Mexico | 2 | Noon (Lamade Stadium) | |
| C | Caribbean | 6 | Canada | 2 | 2:00 pm* (Volunteer Stadium) | |
| C | Japan | Transatlantic | Canceled[2] | |||
| D | Latin America | 11 | Mexico | 1 | 7:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium) | |
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
| August 23 – Noon - Volunteer (F/7) | ||||||||||
| Latin America | 2 | |||||||||
| August 25 – 12:30 pm - Lamade | ||||||||||
| Caribbean | 4 | |||||||||
| Caribbean | 4 | |||||||||
| August 23 – 5:00 pm - Volunteer (F/10) | ||||||||||
| Japan | 7 | |||||||||
| Japan | 4 | |||||||||
| August 26 – 3:30 pm - Lamade (F/8) | ||||||||||
| Asia-Pacific | 3 | |||||||||
| Japan | 2 | |||||||||
| August 23 – 3:00 pm - Lamade | ||||||||||
| Southeast | 3 | |||||||||
| Southwest | 8 | |||||||||
| August 25 – 3:30 pm - Lamade | ||||||||||
| Northwest | 2 | |||||||||
| South West | 2 | Third place | ||||||||
| August 23 – 7:30 pm - Lamade (F/5) | ||||||||||
| Southeast | 5 | |||||||||
| Southeast | 16 | Caribbean | 0 | |||||||
| West | 6 | Southwest | 1 | |||||||
| August 26 – Noon - Volunteer | ||||||||||
| 2007 Little League World Series Champions |
|---|
| Warner Robins American Little League Warner Robins, Georgia |
For the first time, all 32 games of the tournament, from the opening pitch to the final out, were scheduled for a live telecast in the United States. All but one of the broadcasts were to be on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. (The remaining game, the August 19 Pabao vs. Arabian-American game, was to be shown online on ESPN360, then shown the next day on ESPN2, but the rebroadcast on ESPN2 was canceled and replaced by live coverage of the rain-delayed NASCAR 3M Performance 400, and part of the game was shown live on ESPN due to a rain delay in the scheduled St. Louis Cardinals-Chicago Cubs game). ABC was to have its most comprehensive coverage ever, with games on both weekend days in the preliminary rounds, as well as both semifinals and the championship game for a total of five games. ESPN had 15 games scheduled for broadcast, while ESPN2 had 11. A number of games (yet to be announced) were to be shown in high-definition.[1]
The expanded coverage was part of a new eight-year contract between ESPN, Inc. and the Little League organization that started with this series.
No international broadcast plans were available, but possible outlets included ESPN International and TSN (Canada).
Although the Western region champion came from the Phoenix media market, its local affiliate, KNXV, did not show Chandler's first round-robin game on August 18. Instead, ESPN interrupted its normal feed on Cox Communications and other local cable providers to air the game live in that area. KNXV was then to show the game on tape delay at 4:30 p.m. local time.[2] Similarly, the game was also not seen on KTRK-TV in Houston, ironically an owned and operated station. Both KTRK and KNXV instead showed the National Football League preseason game between the Houston Texans and the Arizona Cardinals.
1 If a pitcher reaches the limit while facing a batter, the pitcher may continue to pitch until that batter reaches base or is out.
The first game of the 2007 Little League World Series featured Walpole, Massachusetts going up against Hamilton, Ohio. The Hamiton struck first, scoring a run in the third inning. The score remained 1-0 until the sixth, when the Walpole team struck back, scoring 3 runs. Going into the bottom of the sixth inning the score was 3-1 in favor of Walpole. Hamiton responded by scoring a run. With two outs and a man on John Cornett stepped up to the plate. He got hold of a pitch and took it to center field. It looked like a sure walk-off home run, but Michael Rando was right there. He jumped, his back to the wall, and robbed the home run to give Walpole the win.
The walk off home run by Dalton Carriker that won Warner Robins the LLWS was followed by the team coming over to embrace and comfort the losing Tokyo team. This event was given considerable press coverage[5][6] and was considered a breath of fresh air in a summer that saw the spotlight focused on the misdoings of Michael Vick and Barry Bonds.[7]
One of the players on the runner-up Tokyo Kitasuna team was reported to have contracted measles before coming to Williamsport. The player, whose identity was not made public, contracted the virus from a sibling back in Japan in late July and was infectious while traveling. As a result, six people across three states were infected. The boy directly infected four people: a friend from Japan, an airport officer in Detroit, a woman who sat near the boy on the flight from Detroit to Baltimore, and a sales representative in Pennsylvania. The man subsequently infected two Houston-area college students.[8]
Two players on the Coon Rapids, Minnesota club reportedly spit on their hands following their elimination from the tournament during pool play. Upon hearing of the incident, which took place as they got ready to shake hands with the victorious Chandler, Arizona club and was televised throughout the US on ESPN, manager Mark Lowe apologized for the incident.[9]
The Warner Robins American LL went undefeated on their road to the LLWS, winning all twelve of their games.[10][11] In total record was 17–1, their only loss coming against Hamilton West Side LL (from Ohio).
| Round | Opposition | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia State Tournament | ||
| Group Stage | Cedartown LL | 10–0 |
| Group Stage | Decatur Belvedere LL | 7–3 |
| Group Stage | Elbert County LL | 17–6 |
| Group Stage | Toccoa National LL | 22–4 |
| Semifinals | Oconee County American LL | 9–2 (4 inn.) |
| Championship | Buckhead Piedmont | 6–3 |
| Southeast Regional | ||
| Group Stage | Mobile Westside LL | 6–5 |
| Group Stage | Wren LL | 6–0 |
| Group Stage | Tullahoma American LL | 5–1 |
| Semifinals | SYA East LL | 3–2 |
| Southeast Region Championship | Mobile Westside LL | 10–9 |
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