Welcome to District3.org / 2008 Senior League Softball World Series, Sussex County, Delaware

Welcome to 2008 Senior League Softball World Series

The Georgia House in Millsboro was packed Saturday Morning as the District 3 Little League kicked off their 5th Little League Senior Softball World Series.

District 3 Administrator Martin Donovan announced that ESPN or ESPN2 would be broadcasting the final game live and that about 250,000 softball fans watched the tape replay two weeks later.

Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner attended an early session with the executive board, and promised to continue the State of Delaware's support for the event. Earlier in the year, the Carl M. Freeman companies had extended their long standing support agreement with the Little League.

Attendees heard from several of last year's players and coaches from 3rd place finisher Laurel Little League, as well as others involved with on field play. Delmarva TV personality [and big softball fan] Scotty Amarine talked about the Series' impact on Delaware.

The Senior Softball World series is only one of 8 Little League sponsored events that finish each age group's season. It is scheduled at the Lower Sussex Little League complex in Roxanna, Delaware, August 3-9, 2008.

Mark your calendars

Little League International has announced that the Little League Senior Softball World Series will return to Delaware, [Roxanna and the Lower Sussex Little League Complex] August 3-9, 2008.

Last year was a first for the Senior Softball World Series - it was televised live on one of the ESPN family of networks [ESPN-U], with a replay on ESPN2 later in August. This year, we expect the final game to be carried live on ESPN or ESPN2 at 4 PM on the 9th, subject to a decision by the network.

This is part of a ramping up of ESPN's coverage of Little League Softball games - the semifinal and championship games of the Little League Softball World Series, as well as the championship games of the ... Senior League Softball and Big League Softball were also carried on the ESPN family of networks.

Little League Baseball and Softball is the world’s largest organized youth sports program, with more than 2.6 million players and 1 million adult volunteers in every U.S. state and scores of other countries.

The World of Softball comes to Lower Sussex, Delaware every August. Watch for more announcements...

By Roy Lamberton - LLWS Media Director

There was a lot of interest in the World Series Champion Southwest team's switch hitting this year.

If you watched the game, you noticed that some of the girls came to bat as lefties, then moved to their natural right handed position once they had 2 strikes.

The truth is that the girls of San Antonio were not a team of switch hitters, they were in position to slap bunt - something that is a big part of American Women's Softball but usually seen at much higher levels of play.

The idea is to come to bat as a lefty, and flip the end of the bat at the softball as it crosses the plate while stepping out towards first base. The batter "slaps" the ball to make it roll slowly down the 3rd base line.

If you do it right, the ball barely trickles down the line towards 3rd, while the batter, with a 3 step head start, cruises into first with an infield single. Swinging from the first base side of the plate, the batter is usually well down the line before any infielders can get to the ball.

Once a right handed batter has 2 strikes, however, they have to turn around and bat normally, since bunting a foul ball with 2 strikes is an automatic strike out. The batter also has to call time to change sides since she cannot step over the plate with the bat in her hand - its also an automatic out. The Southwest girls switched sides once they got 2 strikes.

If you watch the college Softball World Series, you see many more leadoff batters who are skilled in slap bunting. Not sure how you pitch to those athletes, but the technique is almost as unnerving to a team as that first pitch home run is in baseball.

And that's the real reason why those ladies from San Antonio kept switching sides of the plate. They were "Slap Bunting."

You can now see the individual team stats by going to the roster page and clicking on the graphic right below the Managers and Coaches' names.

If you don't agree with the numbers, have your coach send us their player and position changes from the game. We cannot change the official scorekeeper's rulings, but we can correct any position or player changes to make things accurate.

You can send a recap of your changes to: media@district3.org. You should submit them by half inning, and which player went to which spot in the batting order and/or what position they were playing at the time of the switch for your team only.

A word about positions: a player coming to bat is a pinch hitter until they actually take the field defensively. A special Pinch runner is designated as "DR" on our software.

Thanks for your understanding - scoring a senior softball game under the present rules can get very complicated. If you don't believe that, check out some of the box scores on the games pages.

Additional Local information:

Prior Year's Results: