The Junior Softball World Series is being played in Kirkland this week at Everest Park with 10 teams from around the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region.
The tournament began on Aug. 2 and the finals, played Saturday at 2 p.m., will be broadcast on ESPN.
In all, the teams will play a combined 34 games during the six day pool play round and championship tournament.
Latin America and Canada were the first two teams to win games on the first day of the 2015 Junior Softball World Series.
Latin America overpowered Europe-Africa, 20-3, while Canada edged the U.S. Central team, 11-10.
The event will also host a skills competition this week, sponsored by Les Schwab.
For the first time in three years, the host team is from Bellevue. The team has struggled during its first two games as of Tuesday, losing to Central, 3-0, and Southeast, 13-0, both teams from the United States.
Last year the host team from Kirkland competed for the championship.
New this year are the Challenger Division exhibition games to be played tomorrow.
In 1989, the Little League Challenger Division was established to provide a Little League experience to children with physical and intellectual challenges. In 2001, Little League gave two Challenger Division teams the opportunity to play a game at the Little League Baseball World Series.
This year, for the first time, Challenger Division teams participated in a game at the Junior Softball World Series.
“The Little League Softball World Series Tournaments are some of the most exciting, competitive events in youth softball,” said Sara Thompson, Little League Director of Softball Development. “The Little League Softball World Series Challenger Exhibition Game is one of the favorite things on the schedule in Portland, not only for the fans, but for the teams and players, as well. We are looking forward to bringing these fun, inspirational games to all of the softball tournaments this August.”
More than 30,000 athletes participate in more than 900 Challenger programs in 10 countries around the world. For more information, visit LittleLeagueChallenger.org.
