Aug 13, 2025
FILE – Taiwan lines the third baseline as Lake Mary, Fla., lines the first baseline during team introductions before the Little League World Series Championship game at Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, Pa., Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT — The road to Williamsport was filled with more drama than usual for a couple Little League World Series participants this year, including a Venezuelan team that needed visa exemptions to make the trip and an American club that narrowly knocked off a defending champ.
Baseball’s preeminent youth baseball tournament resumes today in central Pennsylvania. The festivities begin with a look at what makes the 20-team event special.
ESPN is airing a documentary called “Big Dreams: Little League World Series 2024” on Tuesday night. The filmmakers had great raw material. Lake Mary, Florida, defeated Taiwan 2-1 in eight tense innings last August to win the title. But director Rudy Valdez wanted to go deeper than wins and losses.
“These are kids, you know, I want you to remember that,” Valdez said. “We’re showing them how to navigate life, and we’re showing them how to take wins and take losses and be good sports and how to get back up when you fall.
“We have to give them the space to learn and I wanted that to be the feeling of this, that you were really navigating this year of the Little League World Series through the eyes and experiences of them.”
The film was set to premiere Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN and is available for streaming through ESPN+.
Cardenales Little League from Barquimesto, Venezuela, will represent Latin America for the second straight year, but this time the team required a special exemption from President Donald Trump’s travel ban. The team only learned of the exemption less than a week before its opening game today at 1 p.m. against Puerto Rico.
The team declined to comment.
Cardenales’ exemption came after a different Venezuelan team was denied entry into the United States for the Senior Baseball World Series last month.
This year’s Cardenales team has a different roster and coaching staff than the 2024 group.
Last year’s team survived two rounds in the elimination bracket to advance to the international final. It lost 4-1 to Taiwan but beat Texas for third place.
Venezuela only has two Little League World Series titles, the last 25 years ago.
Defending champion Lake Mary was one out away from making its return to central Pennsylvania, but there will be a different team representing the Southeast Region this year: South Carolina’s Irmo Little League.
Lake Mary led 4-0 but gave up five runs in the bottom of the sixth to lose, 5-4, to Irmo, which had lost earlier on the tournament trail to Lake Mary, 14-0. Brady Westbrooks delivered the game-winning hit for Irmo.
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