2002 Little League World Series


The 2002 Little League World Series took place between August 16 and August 25 in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Valley Sports American Little League of Pleasure Ridge Park, a suburb of Louisville, Kentucky, defeated Sendai Higashi Little League of Sendai, Japan, in the championship game of the 56th Little League World Series.
Notable players included 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Austin Dillon, a member of the Clemmons, North Carolina, Little League representing the Southeast region.

Qualification

Between five and twelve teams take part in 16 regional qualification tournaments, which vary in format depending on region. In the United States, the qualification tournaments are in the same format as the Little League World Series itself: a round-robin tournament followed by an elimination round to determine the regional champion.
Pool APool BPool CPool D
Fort Worth, TX
Southwest
Westside		 Manhattan
Mid-Atlantic
Harlem		 Valencia, Venezuela
Latin America
Los Leones		 Sendai, Miyagi
Asia
Sendai Hagashi
Worcester, MA
New England
Jesse Burkett		 Louisville, KY
Great Lakes
Valley Sports American		 Regina, Saskatchewan
Canada
North Regina		 Willemstad, Curaçao
Caribbean
Pariba
Webb City, MO
Midwest
Webb City		 Aptos, CA
West
Aptos		 Hagåtña
Pacific
Central		 Monterrey
Mexico
Country de Monterrey
Waipio, HI
Northwest
Waipio		 Clemmons, NC
Southeast
Southwest Forsyth		 Dhahran
Transatlantic
Arabian-American		 Moscow
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Khovrino

Pool play

The top two teams in each pool move on to their respective semifinals. The winners of each met on August 25 to play for the Little League world championship.
RegionRecord
Southwest2–1
New England2–1
Northwest2–1
Midwest0–3

RegionRecord
Great Lakes3–0
Mid-Atlantic2–1
West1–2
Southeast0–3

August 16
August 17
August 18
August 19
August 20

International

RegionRecord
Asia3–0
Caribbean2–1
Mexico1–2
EMEA0–3

August 16
August 17
August 18
August 19
August 20

Elimination rounds

2002 Little League World Series Champions

Valley Sports American Little League
Louisville, Kentucky

Champions Path

The Louisville Valley Sports American LL went undefeated on their road to the LLWS, winning all eleven of their matches. In total record was 17-0.