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Sports

Play Ball! Bronco World Series Lands in Los Alamitos

By Jessica Burger

An international celebration of youth baseball brought families, friends and fans of the sport out to Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base on Thursday afternoon for the opening ceremony and first round of games in the 2013 Pony Baseball Bronco 12 World Series.

Los Alamitos mayor Warren Kusumoto welcomed the eight teams that made it this far as they paraded across a field of fresh cut grass and red dirt.

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Four different national anthems were played in order to celebrate all eight of the team’s nationalities: South Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and all-star teams from Indiana, Florida, North Carolina and California.

Tournament Chairman, Brian Gorman said the best part of this experience for the players is “meeting and competing with kids from around the country and around the world.”

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Los Mochis from Mexico spent 30 hours on a bus to get here. According to the president of their national association of baseball, Luis Cornejo, “It is important for the kids to be here and for the organization to be part of Pony."

The Ponce team from Puerto Rico flew by plane, along with the Seoul team from South Korea, who came with 12 players, two coaches and no translator until their arrival.  

And as the crowd wore a sea of different baseball caps, Mexico's crowd stood out the brightest in their green, white and red uniforms amongst the other team’s traditional red, white and blue.

“It’s a great atmosphere for people who like to come out and enjoy baseball,” said Jim Eckardt, a Los Alamitos Youth Baseball board member, said

The eight teams that have gotten to this point will compete over the next four days for the title of 2013 Bronco World Series Champions.

“The teams that have qualified, are probably some of the best 12-year-old players in the country,” Eckardt said.

The smell of kettle corn filled the air while kids in oversized baseball caps stuffed their faces with cotton candy or slurped down slushies from plastic baseball hats, leaving their mouths dyed either red or blue.

A deep voiced umpire yelled “play ball,” and the first two games began: Los Mochis from Mexico played Evansville East from Indiana, while Ponce from Puerto Rico went up against a team from Miami, Tamiami. 

On side-by-side baseball fields, the seven inning games went from 5-8:30 p.m., pushing back the start of games between Los Alamitos and West Raleigh of North Carolina, and South Korea and Vacaville.

In the end, the winners of the first rounds were Evansville East, beating Los Mochis 9-8, and Tamiami beat Ponce, 14-12.

In the second round of the first matches, Los Alamitos beat West Raleigh 4-3, and Seoul beat Vacaville 8-7.

A team must lose twice in order to fall out of the running for the championship game this Sunday.

Events start Friday at noon, with a home run derby followed by a chance to meet professional players during their “Meet A Pro,” baseball player showcase.

Competing teams will continue at 5 p.m., with Los Mochis vs. West Raleigh and Ponce vs. Vacaville—followed by a pair of games from Thursday night’s winners, Los Alamitos vs. Evansville and Seoul vs. Tamiami.

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