International field lined up for PONY League World Series in Washington

Eight teams have qualified with two more to be decided this week as anticipation grows for the 71st Dick’s Sporting Goods PONY League World Series on Aug. 11-16 in Washington, Pa.

The world will be watching as four U.S. Zone winners, the host team from Washington County, the host area team from Youngstown, Ohio, and the Caribbean, European, Mexican and Asia-Pacific champions will do battle in the double-elimination bracket.

“(We) have kids from Japan this year, we’ve never had a team from Nicaragua, Germany is back, and Monterrey, (Mexico) knows their way around,” said Bob Gregg, a member of the board of directors for World Series Tournaments, Inc., the fuel behind the PONY World Series.

“The language barrier really isn’t a barrier. It’s actually an opening. They can’t talk with each other, but they can smile and they can laugh. The hotel is a great scene at night because the kids from the teams find ways to interact with each other, and it’s really special.”

Washington County’s host team features players from Washington, Canon-McMillan, Fort Cherry, Burgettstown and Trinity school districts.

The players come from the Founders League, formed in 2015 in an effort to rekindle youth baseball throughout the county.

Monongahela (1954) and Washington (1955) own Pennsylvania’s two PONY World Series titles.

Youngstown won the 12-team host-area tournament in Mt. Lebanon for those teams within a 90-mile radius of Washington. The tournament featured a number of Pittsburgh-area teams.

Youngstown, which went 4-0 and outscored its opponents 43-2, also claimed four straight World Series berths from 2017-2021.

Bay County, Mich. won the North Zone title for its 11th consecutive PONY World Series berth and 14th in the past 17 years. Its first appearance in the World Series was in 1983 in Kennewick, Wash., the last year the tournament was held somewhere other than Washington.

South Zone champion Palmview, Texas survived the largest zone tournament as it went undefeated through a five-day, 16-team bracket.

Palmview is in the field for the second year in a row after going 1-2 last year.

Six teams began play Tuesday in a double-elimination tournament to decide the East Zone champion. Vying for that title are teams from Manchester, N.H.,; New York City; Cleveland; High Point, N.C.; Chatham County, N.C.; and Southampton-Sussex, Va.

The West Zone champion will be the last team to qualify. That eight-team double elimination event wraps up Sunday.

Paderborn, Germany (European); Monterrey (Mexico); Edogawa, Japan (Asia-Pacific); and Managua, Nicaragua (Caribbean) will provide the international flair to the world series.

Paderborn went 6-0 in its zone tournament, outscoring its opponents 78-4. Germany’s last appearance was in 2016 when it went 1-2 overall.

Monterrey outlasted 15 other teams in the Mexico Zone tournament, going 7-0 and outscoring opponents 54-7. Last year, Monterrey made its fourth World Series appearance. It lost in the 2022 title game to Chinese Taipei.

It was Chinese Taipei’s fifth World Series title in seven years.

Japan will be represented for the seventh time and first since 2013. It won its only World Series title that year as Okinawa scored victories in four of five games and defeated Los Mochis, Mexico, in the final.

Managua hopes to claim the Caribbean Zone’s eighth PONY World Series title. The previous seven were won by teams from Puerto Rico.

“The caliber of play that we will see on Lew Hays PONY Field next Friday, if our recent 25-year history is any indication, that is good news because you are going to see some future (Major League Baseball) players,” Gregg said.

There are five players on active major league rosters who played on PONY World Series teams. The most notable is Milwaukee Brewers star Christian Yellich, who was a member of the 2006 Simi Valley runner-up team.

Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol played on a team from Miami at the 1984 tournament with future MLB players Alex Fernandez and Jorge Fabregas. The team was not able to take home the title.

A fan fest at the Dick’s Sporting Goods store on Washington Road kicks off the week of events Aug. 10.

A skills competition (team/individual home run derby and fastest runner contests) is set for 11 a.m. Aug. 11.

Games begin at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 11 with Bay City facing Plainview before the opening ceremonies at 7.

The PONY Champions League Game featuring area special-needs players with World Series players and coaches providing encouragement will be at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 12.

Military and first responders appreciation night is Aug. 13. Youth night, where all youth players who wear their jersey or a team T-shirt receive free admission, is Aug. 14.

Every game will be broadcast online through PLWS.TV via partnership with the Trib High School Sports Network.

AT&T Sports Net and Pittsburgh’s CW will televise as many as seven games of this year’s World Series. That includes AT&T Sports Net’s coverage of the championship game at 7 p.m. Aug. 16.

The first PONY League World Series in 1952 was played at Washington High School’s baseball field while Lew Hays Field was constructed.

After the 2020 tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, the PONY World Series returned the next year with only U.S.-based teams, including a team from Puerto Rico.

Brownsville, Texas defeated Youngstown, 11-10, to win the 2021 crown.

“PONY baseball in Washington County is a community effort where we all come together to support this wonderful event, for not only the county and the kids, but for this region as we move forward with our growth and economic development,” said Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce.