Little League World Series 2015: Schedule, TV Info and Predictions for Round 1

Stateside, late summer is prime time for baseball fans, with hockey and basketball in their offseasons and football waiting to ramp up in fall. It makes sense then that sports fans make room in their schedule for a little extra action from the diamond. Filling the void is the 2015 Little League World Series, which begins Thursday in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Regional qualifying play has left only the best youth baseball teams from around the world to square off. Sixteen teams—eight from the United States, eight international—will compete in a double-elimination tournament for the World Series title. It's been four years since a United States team has won, despite the tourney being hosted every year in Williamsport.

It's kids playing a kid's game, so the competition will in turn be fierce or completely lopsided, but almost always in good fun.

Here's the schedule, TV info and predictions for the Little League World Series opening round.

Thursday, August 20
Friday, August 21
Time (ET)	Bracket	Team	Team	TV	Prediction
1 p.m.	INT	Dominican Republic	Uganda	ESPN	Dominican Republic
3 p.m.	US	Pearland West, TX.	Wilshire-Riverside, OR	ESPN	Wilshire-Riverside
5 p.m.	INT	Venezuela	Australia	ESPN	Venezuela
7 p.m.	US	Bowling Green Eastern, KY	Sweetwater Valley, CA	ESPN2	Sweetwater Valley
Time (ET)	Bracket	Team	Team	TV	Prediction
2 p.m.	INT	Canada	Mexico	ESPN	Canada
4 p.m.	US	Cranston Western, RI	Northwood, SC	ESPN	Northwood
6 p.m.	INT	Japan	Chinese Taipei	ESPN	Japan
8 p.m.	US	Webb City, MO	Red Land, PA	ESPN	Red Land

Note: Live streams for the games can be found at WatchESPN. A complete Little League World Series schedule can be found here.

Preview

The most tantalizing first-round matchup is perhaps the one between Japan and Chinese Taipei, historically the two best international squads in the LLWS. Chinese Taipei has won the tournament 17 times but is suffering through a decades-long championship drought.

The country hasn't won it all since 1996. Meanwhile, Japan has come to dominate Little League's biggest event, making it to the championship game eight times since 2001 and winning five of them (Japan has nine LLWS titles overall). And as LittleLeague.org notes, the Kitasuna Little League from Tokyo is a celebrated, powerhouse league from a powerhouse baseball nation: 

"

Kitasuna Little League first competed in Williamsport in 2001, the year that the Little League Baseball World Series format expanded to 16 teams. This will be the fifth appearance for the league in 15 years; winning the Championship in 2001 and 2012, and finishing as runner-up in 2007. At the 2014 Little League Baseball World Series, the team from Kitasuna finished with three wins and two losses, falling to eventual World Series Champions, Seoul Little League from South Korea, in the International Championship Game.

"

Last year, it was indeed the squad from Seoul, South Korea, that won it all, but Chinese Taipei is back representing the Asia-Pacific region—Japan has its own, separate regional qualifier—and will be looking to reverse a long trend of Little League futility.

Uganda may have been a complete underdog when it became the first African nation to compete in the Little League World Series back in 2012, but this group from the AVRS Secondary School might be able to make a run in this tournament. NPR's David Lagesse documented their dominance in the Europe-Africa regional: 

"

A month ago, the Ugandan nine torched five European teams. The only Africans at the regional tournament, the Ugandans "mercy ruled" every opponent but one. That means they stomped the competition so soundly that games were stopped out of, well, mercy. Uganda won with scores ranging from 21-1 to 4-0, winning the championship against Spain 16-0.

"

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

In 2012, Uganda lost its first two games and was quickly eliminated (its record was officially 1-2, as the first teams out all play in a consolation game). It has a tough first test against the Dominican Republic—a country with a rich baseball tradition that has produced scores of major leaguers—but Richard Stanley, a team benefactor, believes this squad will have a better handle on the tougher parts of the game.

"Oh yeah, they can hit curveballs — and they can throw them, too," he said, via Lagesse. "These kids can play."

As for the United States, look for the Sweetwater Valley, California, team to possibly make some noise. Golden State squads have done particularly well in recent years; Chula Vista won it all in 2009 and made it back to the final in 2013, while a squad from Huntington Beach defeated Japan to win the whole thing in 2011. 

Like Chula Vista, the youngsters from Sweetwater Valley hail from the San Diego area, where it's prime baseball weather all year round. Sweetwater Valley went 4-0 and scored a staggering 50 runs in West Region play, while its first-round opponent—Bowling Green Eastern of Kentucky—managed just 22 runs in four games with a relatively meager plus-seven run differential.

Red Land, Pennsylvania, will also be a team to keep an eye on as the in-state representatives at the tournament, as will the terrifying bunch of tykes from Wilshire-Riverside, Oregon, who scored 58 runs in the Northwest regional.

Kitasuna's presence will loom large over the tournament, and it is likely the team to beat in international play. It's tough to say who will make it out of the United States bracket, considering so many of the squads put up gaudy numbers in their respective regionals, but whoever does make it to the championship game will be looking to keep the trophy in the United States for the first time in four years.