ABERDEEN, Maryland - The seventh annual Cal Ripken 12-year-old World Series will be held August 12 through August 20 at Cal Ripken Yard in Aberdeen, Maryland, a miniature replica of Oriole Park at Camden Yard.
ABERDEEN, Maryland â The seventh annual Cal Ripken 12-year-old World Series will be held August 12 through August 20 at Cal Ripken Yard in Aberdeen, Maryland, a miniature replica of Oriole Park at Camden Yard.
The youth stadium and its features are part of the Ripken Baseball Complex, a state of the art baseball facility located just off Interstate-95 between Baltimore and Wilmington DE.
The international tournament hosts 15 teams of 11 and 12-year olds from all over the world. Ten teams from the Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Ohio Valley, New England, Pacific Southwest, Midwest Plains, Southeast and Middle Atlantic regions along with the Maryland state champions and the Harford County champions will join five international teams from Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Australia and the Republic of Korea.
In 2005 the team representing Hawaii beat the two-year defending champions from Mexico in an exciting 1-0 game, which was televised live on Comcast SportsNet.
This year seven games â including the semi finals and championship match â will be televised live on OLN!
Teams will arrive in Aberdeen August 10 and 11 with tournament pool play taking place August 12-18. The finals and championship round will follow on August 19 and 20.
More than 700,000 kids, ages 5 to 12, play Cal Ripken baseball worldwide. The first ever Cal Ripken World Series was held in Matoon, Illinois in 2000 for the 12-year-old age group. Two years later, after the Ripken organization dove into the world of youth baseball, the Cal Ripken World Series moved to Aberdeen, Maryland.
In 2003, the World Series for the first time was played in Ripken Stadium, home of the minor league Oriole-affiliate Aberdeen IronBirds.
The Newtown Blaze will open play at 2:30 pm on August 13 â on the Fenway Field â against the Southwest Regional champion. On August 14 â on Memorial Field â the Blaze will battle the Pacific Southwest Regional champion at 12 noon. On August 16 â at Cal Sr. Yard â the Blaze will battle the Maryland state champion. And on August 17 â on Wrigley Field â the Blaze will battle the Pacific Northwest Regional champion in the final game of pool play.
Bracket play will begin on August 18 and the four games will be interspersed with Harford Company Day and a Crab Cake Cook-Off contest.