SoCal Little League Tournaments Return

By Rabbi Rabbs
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Updated: June 12, 2019

(The 2018 Southern California Little League champion, Park View Little League of Chula Vista. Photo courtesy of Jon Bigornia.)

Get ready once again for Southern California youngsters competing in local all-star baseball tournaments leading to the Little League World Series. CaliSports News will again lead SoCal’s coverage. To accomplish that, CSN added a writer. My friend Mark Cohen, who contributed to my articles last summer, officially joined CSN’s staff. He shall cover Orange County tournaments, while Rabbi Rabbs focuses on the Little League capital of America, a.k.a. District 42.

California District 42 absolutely dominates. Teams representing that southwestern San Diego County district won the SoCal tourney in four of the past six years. Three of those champions moved on to the World Series hosted in South Williamsport, PA. In addition, during the past 10 years, District 42’s teams captured the SoCal title five times. They won the West Region four times, United States championship twice, and world championship once. Chula Vista’s Park View Little League led the way, winning the world crown in 2009. It returned to the World Series in 2016. Park View currently holds the SoCal pennant, as depicted in the above photo.

San Diego County contains the southwest corner of California. District 42’s boundaries encompass the extreme southwest corner of that county. Nine separate leagues divide District 42. Think about that. All of that young baseball talent gets distributed among nine different teams. Just imagine if for instance Chula Vista could draw from its entire city limits for one all-star team. I think such a Chula Vista team could win the Little League World Series every year.

The Little League capital of America.

The entire city of Chula Vista resides within District 42. So does the city of Imperial Beach, and the unincorporated community of Bonita. The district also surrounds the city of San Diego’s southernmost section which lies adjacent to the Mexican border. That area is called South San Diego. It includes the neighborhood of San Ysidro which serves as the port of entry to Tijuana. Anyone that has ever gone to Tijuana has driven through District 42. Here is a map:

(The Little League capital of America.)

Southern California’s tournaments start this month. They continue until the end of July. Then, the SoCal champion moves on in August to face teams from other states. I explain in great detail how all of that works in Get Ready For SoCal’s Little League Baseball Tournament.

Just a quick refresher course by the numbers. More than 300 all-star teams compete in Southern California. Those 300 get grouped into 10 geographical sections. Each section is composed of local districts. SoCal contains a total of 39 such districts. Each of those 39 conduct their own tournament consisting of all-star teams, each one representing their own neighborhood league.

Hang in there. I promise this article gets more exciting later.

District winners then compete against each other in the section tournaments. The 10 section winners square off against each other to capture the 2019 SoCal championship. This marks the second year in a row that south Orange County hosts the 10 section winners. That is very convenient for OC residents, but not so much for everyone else. I suppose holding the final tournament in that county serves as a compromise between forcing San Diego folks from travelling all the way to Los Angeles, and vice-versa. However, I offer an alternative. I say hold the event in Colorado, and make getting there equally a pain in the neck for everyone.

Anyhow, the Southern California champion goes on as one of six teams representing five states in the West Region tournament. That event is held approximately three miles from the absolute middle of nowhere under 110-degree August desert heat in San Bernardino. That tourney’s winner receives a free trip to South Williamsport as one of eight US regional representatives. Those eight battle each other to determine the United States champion. The US champ then squares off against the international champ for the world championship. In all, approximately 7,500 all-star teams worldwide participate. For further details, please read Get Ready.

Journalists’ pledge.

The all-star teams represent the Majors division. Players that turn 13 years old before Sept. 1 are ineligible. This year marks the first time that new rule will be enforced. Hence, 2019’s World Series tournaments will be the first of their kind not to include any 13-year-olds. All of the boys competing will be pre-Bar Mitzvah age. Finally, to repeat what I wrote last year in Get Ready:

“What CaliSports News will try never to do is print anything negative about any players. They are young teens playing for the love of the game, and not overpaid millionaires in their 30’s. So, for my readers that have grown accustomed to Rabbi Rabbs bashing the daylights out of” the Anaheim Ducks, such scrutiny will not happen in my articles on youth baseball. Little League offers a pledge for its players to take, and another pledge for its parents. I reaffirm my own pledge for us journalists: “I will mention a player’s name when they bat a key hit or throw a crucial strike out, but while trying to hide the name of the pitcher that had served that hit, and the name of the batter that struck out. Sometimes, doing so will not be easy, but I shall try.”

CaliSports News seeks more writers. If you wish to report on tournament games held anywhere in Southern California, or if you know of someone that might wish to do so, please contact us. My ultimate goal is for CSN to provide reports on every single SoCal team and each of their tournament games. I realize fulfilling that dream poses a great challenge, but hey, I aim high.

Where are they now?

Finally, we conclude this article with a segment called, Where Are They Now? Last year, in Why I Follow Little League Baseball, I wrote that Chula Vista’s Eastlake High School Titans reached the semi-finals in the 2018 San Diego Section Open Division baseball playoffs before falling to Poway High School of Poway. I mentioned that the Titans’ stacked roster included a slurry of standouts that previously led Chula Vista’s Eastlake Little League to the 2013 United States national championship in S. Williamsport. Well, one year later, and guess what?

CaliSports News’ director of Little League has fresh news to report. Last month, the Titans won the 2019 championship! Congratulations to the Titans! In the finals, this time they beat Poway. The winning team again included Ricky Tibbett who played for that 2013 national champ. The Titans also contained four players that led Bonita’s 2015 Sweetwater Valley Little League team to Pennsylvania. They are: Walker Lannom, Dante Schmid, Preston Fleming, and Nick Maldonado. Three of those four Sweetwater Valley Little League alumni posed wearing Titans’ gear:

(From left to right: Nick Maldonado, Dante Schmid, and Walker Lannom. Photo courtesy of Arturo Maldonado.)

Incidentally, Tibbett’s father Rick managed that 2013 Little League squad. Lannom’s father Ward managed the 2015 Little Leaguers, while Maldonado’s father Arturo was one of their coaches.

From Little League World Series to college ball.

In that same article, I mentioned Grant Holman. I wrote that Holman led the Titans last year, played on the 2013 Little League champion, and was headed to the University of California at Berkeley. Well, Holman immediately broke into the Golden Bears’ lineup. He just completed his freshman year playing for Cal. Holman finished with a respectable .277 batting average, hit four home runs, and drove in 24 runs batted in. The freshman also went 4-3 on the mound. Holman helped lead the Bears into the playoffs for their first time since 2015. In Cal’s final post-season appearance, despite losing to the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils, Holman managed to bat 2-for-4 with an RBI. Pretty impressive first year. In the following video, Holman belted a double against the UCLA Bruins. It served as Cal’s only extra-base hit during that contest:

(Footage courtesy of Low and outside.)

Also in that article, I mentioned that I follow UCLA softball. I pointed out that UCLA’s team includes Aaliyah Jordan from Chula Vista. Well, congratulations to both Jordan and her Bruins, as last week they won the Women’s College World Series! The red shirt sophomore who batted third in UCLA’s lineup proved to be instrumental. Especially during the two-game championship series against the Oklahoma Sooners. In that series, Jordan homered twice, went 4-for-6, walked, and got hit by a pitch. In all, she reached base six times in her eight plate appearances.

USA Baseball.

Continuing with Where Are They Now?, last week, USA Baseball announced its 2019 13U Athlete Development Program roster, and it includes familiar names. USA Baseball named 36 players from across the country to participate in a four-day training session held in North Carolina. Among the 36 are Noah Libed and Elijah Selga. Congratulations to Noah and Elijah!

Libed played last year on Eastlake Little League’s all-star team. CSN featured him at the top of 3-Headed Monster & Slayer, D42 Semis Set. Selga played for Sweetwater Valley’s all-stars. CSN mentioned in Park View Reaches Finals, Sweetwater Valley Survives that Selga recorded a save. At the training camp, those two District 42 stars will join Talin Gardini. He played last year for the all-star team representing San Diego’s San Carlos Little League. I watched Gardini play when I attended one of San Carlos’ games, as I wrote last year. Congratulations to Talin!

First female all-star.

Speaking of Sweetwater Valley, last year CaliSports News published a popular article entitled, Abby Steffen, Sweetwater Valley’s First Female All-Star. Well, she done it again. Sweetwater Valley named Abigail Steffen to its 2019 Junior division all-star team. Congratulations Abby!

Juniors accepts youths under age 15. It serves as a next step for players that become too old for Majors. The division suits Steffen, who turned 14 in May. Guess who will manage her team? Abby’s first baseball coach, Todd Anderson. In First Female All-Star, I mentioned that Anderson coached Abby in the CAPS division, Minors, Majors, and Intermediate. On Juniors all-stars, Steffen joins Kasey Regala, whom CSN quoted in First Female All-Star. Congratulations Kasey!

(This year’s version of the sign planted in front of the Steffen home. Photo courtesy of Laura Steffen.)

In addition, Abby plays in what’s termed as travel ball. She belongs to the San Diego Hustle Baseball Academy. Its teams compete in tournaments held in SoCal and elsewhere. Last month, I watched the Hustle’s 14-and-under squad perform in a tourney hosted in Poway. At the game I attended, Abby was the only female on the roster for either team. She went 1-for-2 at the plate with a single. Steffen also rifled a throw from the wall in right field approximately 300 feet away to nail a runner rounding first base. Pretty good performance. After the game, while still wearing her Hustle uniform, Abby posed for the following photo with Rabbi Rabbs:

(At Sportsplex USA Poway. Photo courtesy of Laura Steffen.)

The Hustle.

Abby’s teammates on the Hustle include the following members of her 2018 Sweetwater Valley all-star team: Noah Betanco, Jacob May, Johnny Scott, Tyler Cabana, Sean Cannon, Xander Iniguez, and Adiel Torres. And guess who manages the team? That’s right, Ward Lannom.

Stay tuned for my next article, hopefully next week, in which your favorite crazy rabbi plans to feature some of Little League’s most unsung heroes. Until then, Let’s Go SoCal !!