The Lake Mary Little League Majors Softball Team (4-1), in their new Southeast uniforms, will open play in the Purple Bracket of the Little League Softball World Series today (Sunday) at Stallings Stadium at Elm Street Park in Greenville, North Carolina.
Lake Mary drew the opening game, where they will face the Northwest Region Champions from Mill Creek Little League of Mill Creek, Washington at 10 a.m.
Other teams in the Purple Bracket of the World Series will be the Mid-Atlantic Region, West Suburban Little League from Johnstown, Pennsylvania; the New England Region champs from Guilford Little League of Guilford, Connecticut; the Southwest Region champs, Tulsa National Little League of Tulsa, Oklahoma; the West Region champs from Westchester-Del Rey Little League of Los Angeles, California.
The Orange Bracket will consist of the Asia-Pacific champs from Tohoku Little League of Iwate, Japan; the Central Region champs from Floyds Knobs Community Club Little League of Floyds Knobs, Indiana; the Europe-Africa Region champs from Prague Little League of Prague, Czechia; the Latin America Region champs from Cantareira Little League of São Paulo, Brazil; the host team from Pitt County Girls Softball Little League of Winterville, North Carolina; and the Canada Region champs from Repentigny, Quebec.
Meanwhile, the defending Little League World Series Champion Lake Mary 10-11-12 Year Old All-Stars (Majors) have improved to 11-0 in the Postseason, winning their first two games at the Southeast Region Tournament in Warner Robins, Georgia.
With the two wins, Lake Mary got a bye on Saturday into today’s (Sunday) semifinals where it will face South Carolina at 2 p.m. on ESPN. Lake Mary needs two wins to earn a second straight trip to the World Series.
A win on Sunday would put them into the Championship Game on Tuesday at 3 p.m. on ESPN.
A loss on Sunday and the locals would need to win an 11 a.m. game on ESPN on Monday to reach the winner-take-all final for the third straight year.
Outfitted in their new Florida uniforms, the won the opening game of the regional on Thursday, edging a familiar opponent, the Tennessee state champion Nolensville Little League of Nolensville, Tennessee, 2-1. The two teams have now faced each other five times over the past two years with Tennessee knocking Lake Mary out in 2023 and Lake Mary eliminating Tennessee last year.
Jaxson Roicki led off the game for Florida with a single, but was forced at second on a grounder by Levi Rodriguez. DeMarcos Mieses then singled Rodriguez to third, from where he scored on a grounder off the bat of Jacob Brown.
Brown started on the hill for Florida and kept Tennessee off the board for the first three innings.
But in the fourth, Brysen Lithmexay led off with a walk, advanced to second on a ground ball and moved over to third on a single by Gavin Getzlaf. Lithmexay then scored the tying run on the grounder by Luke Tomlinson.
The Lake Mary nine answered immediately as Brown led off the fifth with a walk and advanced on a grounder by Brycen Kenny. Brown moved over to third on a single by Colin Anderson and scored a sacrifice fly by Maddox Novitchkov.
Rodriguez took over on the mound and retired five in a row (with the help of a double play after an error) before Roicki came on and needed just two pitches to finish the victory.
Brown was the winner, allowing one run on three hits with six strike outs and just one walk over four innings.
On Friday, Florida took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first and never looked back, collecting 13 hits in a 10-0, five-inning shutout of West Virginia.
Novitchkov started at pitcher and allowed one hit over 2-1/3 innings and Anderson finished up, also allowing just one hit over 2-2/3 innings.
Offensively, Rodriguez, Mieses and Brown had two hits and two RBI each, while Major Hohman also had two hits.
As of Saturday afternoon, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama had been eliminated, while West Virginia and Virginia were to have met in an elimination game that was being delayed by rain. North Carolina and the West Virginia/Virginia winner are to play at 10 a.m. today (Sunday) in an elimination game.
Others in the tournament are the Alabama State Champions from Phenix City Youth Baseball Little League of Phenix City; the Georgia State Champions from Cartersville Little League of Cartersville; the North Carolina State Champion from Lake Norman Little League of Huntersville; the South Carolina State Champions from Irmo Little League of Irmo; the Virginia State Champions from Front Royal Little League of Front Royal; and the West Virginia State Champions from Jefferson County Little League of Shenandoah Junction.
In related news:
Christopher Chikodorff, a member of the 2024 Lake Mary Little League World Champions and who is also listed on this year’s squad, is having an outstanding time playing with the USA Baseball 12U National Team in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-12 Baseball World Cup Championship at Asia Pacific International Baseball Stadium in Tainan, Taiwan.
Team USA (7-1) played Japan in the Championship Game at 10 p.m. on Saturday.
Chikodorff has been one of the stars for the team, carrying the highest batting average .556 (15-for-27), most hits (15) and most runs scored (11) to go along with three doubles and nine RBI while hitting mostly out of the No. 3 spot and playing right field.
In the eight games played, he has four three-hit games and a two hit game, including a game-winning walkout double against host Taiwan on Friday in which the USA scored five runs in the final two at bats to pull off a 6-5 victory.
