Davenport sends team to Little League World Series for second year in a row

Davenport Northwest Little League From Davenport, Iowa, Wins Midwest Championship, Returns to 2005 Little League Baseball World Series
Little League Press Release
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (Aug. 12, 2005) – A team from Davenport, Iowa, became the second U.S. region representative, and ninth overall, to earn a berth in the 2005 Little League Baseball World Series by winning the Midwest championship on Stokely Field at the Ruben F. Glick Little League Baseball Center, Friday night in Indianapolis.

Davenport Northwest Little League defeated Centennial Lakes East Little League from Circle Pines, Minn., 6-4, to win the championship game. Davenport Northwest Little League finished the six-team regional tournament with a 6-0 record, and will represent the Midwest Region in Williamsport, Pa., for the second consecutive year.

Teams representing the Midwest Region have never played in the Little League Baseball World Series championship game. Davenport Northwest Little League is the ninth Iowa state champion to advance to the Little League Baseball World Series. This is the fifth time a team from the city of Davenport has qualified for the World Series.

The Little League Baseball World Series for 11-12-year-olds will be played in Williamsport, Aug. 19-28. Sixteen teams from around the world will take part.

ESPN and ESPN2 and WOC-AM 1420 radio will be broadcasting all of Davenport Northwest's games, starting with Friday's 7 p.m. game against Southeast region champs from Maitland, Fla.

Davenport also plays Hawaii Sunday at 2 p.m. and Pennsylvania on Monday at 7 p.m.

The semifinals are next week, Wednesday through Friday. The U.S. and International championships are next Saturday, and the world title will be decided next Sunday.

ABC will televise the Little League Baseball World Series U.S. championship game on Aug. 27, at 3:30 p.m. The world championship game of the Little League Baseball World Series can be seen live on ABC at 3:30 p.m., on Aug. 28. Twenty-seven other World Series games will be televised on ESPN or ESPN2 for a total of 29 games on national television.

I'm not exactly the world's biggest baseball freak, but I think it's incredibly cool that a local team is going to the Little League WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP for the second year in a row! I mean, that's really an accomplishment, with them having to play and win an amazing number of games against top notch team to even advance this far, and though it went largely unnoticed last year, at least this year Mediacom is running some catchy commercials to promote the team's ESPN appearances.

I caught some of the games last year on ESPN, and they're very exciting to watch, especially when you realize that these guys are only 11-12 years old. They're amazing and play incredible ball under unimaginable pressure.

I caught the team from Hawaii in a game televised this week, and these guys are killers. I see Davenport has to get past them to advance. But the beauty of this level of play is that anything can happen, and usually does. Go Davenport!!