The Backyard Batting Cage

By Communications Division
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa.
July 16, 2012

2012 World Series Media Credentials
2012 World Series Schedule
2012 MEA Tournament

For the first time in the 66-year history of the Little League Baseball World Series, a team from Africa will be in the field. Lugazi Little League from Lugazi, Uganda, won the Middle East and Africa (MEA) Region Tournament today with a 5-2 victory over Kuwait Little League from Kuwait City, Kuwait.

The five-team, four-day tournament was played at the Little League Baseball European Leadership Training Center in Kutno, Poland.

Little League in Uganda is relatively new with the first local leagues chartering in 2005.

Lugazi is located in the southeastern area of the landlocked country, about 31 miles east of the capital city of Kampala. The Lugazi Little League is one of five chartered Little Leagues in Uganda, with four Little League (Majors) Baseball Division teams, and four Junior League Baseball Division teams. There are more than 700 boys and girls currently playing Little League Baseball and Softball in Uganda.

In 2011, a team from a different Ugandan local league, located in the capital city of Kampala, defeated a team from Saudi Arabia in the final game of the MEA Region Tournament. However, irregularities in the team’s birth and residence documents led to the U.S. State Department denying entry visas for the team. As a result, the Saudi Arabia team was awarded the regional title and competed in the 2011 World Series instead.

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