Batter up - LLWS underway

By Jim den Hollander

jdenhollander@capitalnewspapers.com

Little league major teams from Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Portage will be joined by a Madison contingent in one of three branches of the Wisconsin District 4 Tournament. A seven day flurry of games that will ultimately graduate just one to the state championships.

Most have seen the Little League World Series on television, but perhaps most don't realize the long road teams follow to get there.

This District, one of six in Wisconsin will advance its winner to the state tournament in Wausau later this month with one team from that advancing to the Great Lakes Region Championship tournament to be played at Indianapolis and finally, on to Pennsylvania for the big time.

In 2008, there are 92 teams registered to play in the six different districts. District 4, referred to as "Southern Wisconsin excluding Milwaukee area is one of two 17-team districts, second largest in the state along with Milwaukee and Suburbs South. The largest is District 1, Milwaukee and Suburbs North, a 20-team group while the smallest, Fox River Valley (District 2) includes 11 teams, one less than the Northern Wisconsin (District 5) and finally, Northwestern Wisconsin (District 3), sits in the middle with 15 entries.

Play began as early as July 3 in some districts and started yesterday (Tuesday In District 4 as one of the three divisions is a five-team group rather than four.

The Reedsburg event commences tomorrow evening with an Opening Ceremony at Nishan Park beginning at 5:40 p.m. The four teams will open on two different diamonds, Wisconsin Dells facing the host Reedsburg squad while Portage battles West Madison-American.

The following day, action picks up again at 6 p.m. with Reedsburg hosting Portage and the Dells' squad meeting West Madison-American.

The wrap up of the Reedsburg portion of the tournament will take place on Saturday with Reedsburg taking on the Madison squad at noon, followed by Portage and Wisconsin Dells at 2:15 p.m.

East Madison Little League will be the host of the other two divisions as Stoughton, Verona, Waunakee and West Madison-National go at it in Pool 'B' and Pool 'C' includes teams from Beaver Dam, East Madison, Madison Kennedy, Pardeeville and defending District champion Waupun.

The top two teams will proceed directly into the tournament quarter-finals to be played at the East Madison diamonds Sunday, top two pool winners, based on winning percentage or runs allowed per inning will receive a bye, while the lowest seeded pool champion plays the lowest seeded pool runner up in one quarter-final, the other two runners up tangling in the other game.

Monday the two winners will be joined by the other two with byes for the semi-finals and Tuesday, the championship game is slated for 6 p.m. at the East Madison diamond.

Since 2000, the District has been represented by either Madison or Waupun based teams. The last local team to make an appearance at the state championship event was Reedsburg in 1997. That team finished 0-2 at the tourney, defeated by Appleton 12-0 and ultimate state champion South Milwaukee 12-4.

District 4 Little League

Majors Tournament

Pool 'A'

(Nishan Park - Reedsburg)