July 12, 2011

First three teams qualify for series

Aruba South hopes to become first repeat champ since 1992

Aruba South is making its third straight trip to Bangor and seeking to become the first Senior League Baseball team to repeat as world champs since 1992.

Tanauan Little League, Tanauan City, Philippines; Friuli Venezia Giulia L.L., Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy; and defending World Series champion Aruba South L.L., San Nicolas, Aruba, are the first of the 10 teams to qualify for this year’s series.

Tanauan won the Asia-Pacific regional on July 1, earning the league’s first ever trip to a Bangor Senior League World Series. Friuli Venezia Giulia won the Europe-Middle East-Africa regional on July 7 to earn its second trip to Bangor and its first since going 1-3 in pool play in the 2009 series.

Defending series champ Aruba South won the Latin America regional on July 9 to earn its third consecutive trip to Bangor. No other defending regional champion has ever made three straight trips to the Queen City since the World Series came here in 2002. With that accomplishment, Aruba South will now try to become the first defending series champ to win a Senior League World Series since Ping-Tung L.L., Chinese-Taipei won four straight titles from 1989 through 1992.

The next entrant in this year’s series will be the winner of the Maine District 3 tournament, which will be decided by the end of July. The U.S. West regional champion will be decided next, on Aug. 9, followed by the U.S. Southwest and Canada champs on Aug. 10 and U.S. East, U.S. Southeast, and U.S. Central champs on Aug. 11.

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