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The bracket has been set with the return of the International Teams. This should be a very exciting tournament and will be great to go full venue.

United States

• Great Lakes: Hagerstown Little League; Hagerstown, Indiana
• New England: Middleborough Little League; Middleborough, Massachusetts
• Northwest: Bonney Lake/Sumner Little League; Bonney Lake, Washington
• Metro: Massapequa Coast Little League; Massapequa, New York
• Mid-Atlantic: Hollidaysburg Area Summer Baseball Little League; Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania
• Midwest: Davenport Southeast Little League; Davenport, Iowa
• Mountain: Snow Canyon Little League; Santa Clara, Utah
• Southeast: Nolensville Little League; Nolensville, Tennessee
• Southwest: Pearland Little League; Pearland, Texas
• West: Honolulu Little League; Honolulu, Hawaii

International

• Asia-Pacific: Fu Lin Little League; Taipei City, Chinese Taipei
• Australia: Brisbane North Little League; Queensland, Australia
• Canada: Little Mountain Little League; Vancouver, British Columbia
• Caribbean: Pabao Little League; Willemstad, Curacao
• Europe-Africa: Emilia Romagna Little League; Bologna, Italy
• Japan: Takarazuka Little League; Takarazuka, Japan
• Latin America: 14 de Septiembre Little League; Managua, Nicaragua
• Mexico: Matamoros Little League; Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico
• Panama: Aguadulce Cabezera Little League; Aguadulce, Panama
• Puerto Rico: Guaynabo Baseball Little League; Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

Brisbane North Region Little League (Queensland, Australia) was crowned as the 2022 Little League Baseball^® Australia Region Champion, earning direct entry into the 2022 Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) with a hard-fought win over Hills Little League. The 9-3 victory came after a dominant run through the Region Tournament, where Brisbane North Region LL poured in 59 runs over seven games.

After falling to Hills Little League (Sydney, Australia), 4-0, earlier in tournament pool play, Brisbane North Region LL won the rematch thanks to a strong start and stellar pitching. Hills opened up the scoring in the first inning after notching one run, but it would be their only lead of the game as Brisbane North Region answered swiftly, scoring four runs of their own in the bottom of the first. Hills fought back in the top of the fifth scoring two runs, but Brisbane North Region put the game out of reach after knocking in three runs thanks to two consecutive RBI singles.

This will be the first time Brisbane North Region LL makes the trek to Williamsport, second time a team from Queensland earns the honor, and the eighth time a team from Australia will compete in the LLBWS after the country gained direct entry in 2013.

Australia’s most successful trip at the LLBWS took place in 2016, where Hills LL notched two wins by taking down squads from the Europe and Africa Region and Caribbean Region before being knocked out of the elimination bracket by the Mexico Region team.

A rapidly growing Little League country, Australia is one of the few nations with an automatic bid into all four Little League Baseball tournaments, with their most recent direct entry into the Little League Intermediate (50/70) Baseball Division World Series starting in 2018.

With the first-round matchups of the 2022 LLBWS announced at the Chairman’s Celebration of the 28^th Little League International Congress, Brisbane North Region LL is set to square off against the winner of the Canada Region in Game 3 on Wednesday, August 17, at 5 p.m. on Volunteer Stadium.

Little League International will be celebrating the 75^th Anniversary of the LLBWS this year and will celebrate the history of the iconic event throughout the summer leading up to this year’s World Series in August. More information about the 2022 Little League World Series tournaments, including full schedules and downloadable brackets, can be found at LittleLeague.org/WorldSeries.

Selection Monday is 12 days away and the first automatic NCAA Tournament bids will be handed out this weekend when the Ivy League and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournaments conclude (and likely in the Big West as well, where UC Santa Barbara is close to clinching its championship). Teams that are jockeying for position in the NCAA Tournament race have just a handful more opportunities to make their case.

While the postseason picture is coming into sharper focus, this exercise is still meant to be a projection and not what the field would look like if the season ended today. But with every passing day, there is less projection needed, as teams have little time to change their resumes in a dramatic way.

The hosting race continues to be in flux, particularly after last weekend’s Big 12 chaos. Texas Tech’s stunning sweep at Oklahoma State thrust the Red Raiders back into the hosting picture, despite an RPI (33) that remains higher than the typical range for regional hosts. A series win this weekend against Oklahoma would help Texas Tech boost its RPI and at least share the conference title with TCU. That might be enough for the Red Raiders to reach the host line. TCU, which swept Texas Tech, and is the leader in the clubhouse in the Big 12 standings, has a worse RPI (35) and won’t have an opportunity to boost it until the Big 12 Tournament, as its non-conference series against Santa Clara will do little to help the Horned Frogs. It would be strange for the Big 12 regular-season champion not to host, but TCU’s 8-13 mark against top-50 teams will be its undoing, unless it is able to make a push next week in Arlington.

The selection committee also looks like it will have a difficult time sorting out how to order the SEC West hosts. Arkansas, Auburn and Texas A&M are all tracking toward hosting, but determining the order is as hard as unraveling Christmas tree lights. Texas A&M is in first place in the division today thanks to its series win against Arkansas, but it lost a series to Auburn. The Tigers have the best RPI (4), but they're 1.5 games behind the Aggies and Razorbacks in the standings. Arkansas has the worst RPI (26, typically well shy of the range required to host as an SEC team), but is likely to have piled up 20 SEC wins by the end of the conference tournament. At least one, and probably two, of those teams will end up as top-eight seeds, but it’s anyone’s guess right now who it will be.

Those watching the NCAA Tournament bubble will this weekend be fixated on the ACC. Clemson, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest are all on the bubble now and, with a bad weekend, Georgia Tech could find itself uncomfortably close as well. Clemson hosts Boston College and needs a sweep to keep its hopes alive. North Carolina hosts Florida State and Wake Forest visits North Carolina State and a series win for either the Tar Heels or the Demon Deacons might be enough to see them to safety. Pitt hosts Georgia Tech and needs a series win.

The ACC also has a pair of series with hosting implications, as Miami hosts Notre Dame and Virginia travels to Louisville. All four teams are projected hosts now, but with the standings as tight as they are, nothing can be taken for granted. Virginia Tech’s series against Duke has regional implications, though the Hokies are playing for the ACC title and the Blue Devils are fighting for the last spot in the ACC Tournament.

Baseball America will continue to update the projected field weekly throughout the spring.

The List

The Tampa Bay Rays found a way to beat the Yankees in the do-or-die game five match-up and now find themselves in the AL Championship Series against the Houston Astros.

After brutal offense all year long, the Astros have caught fire. There are questions without answers, but this team is hitting lights out right now. The Astros finished off the Athletics in four games with 33 runs in four games and before that, the Astros slid past the Minnesota Twins in the Wild Card Series with seven runs in two games.

The Rays were able to save Blake Snell in their game five against the Yankees and he’ll absolutely get the first start on Sunday against the Astros. The Rays have three aces that can be called upon and relied on Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Charlie Morton and a bullpen that can throw heat. This bullpen has swagger that’s unmatched.

But it’s not just the pitching that got the Rays in this position. The Rays do all of the little things right. Whether that’s hitting with runners in scoring position or fielding bad throws around the diamond on the hop and getting outs, like Ji-Man Choi did plenty of in the fifth game of the ALDS.

The little things matter, especially in tight games. That’s why, even though the Rays don’t have that crazy star power in their lineup, they’re still able to win ball games. The Rays have been fantastic in tight games and that’s why they’re the first seed and will have “home field advantage” in this series, meaning they’ll be the home team in more games than the Astros in this series. 

If you like offense, this is the series for you. The Los Angeles Dodgers boast a deep and powerful lineup that led baseball in runs scored, while the Atlanta Braves scored just one fewer time than L.A. this season.

There are few teams in baseball that match the Dodgers group highlighted by Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger in terms of offensive star power, but Atlanta's combination of Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna Jr. sure can.

Both of these teams got timely hits, but the Dodgers look to have the inside track with a strong pitching staff that can shut any team down. The Braves starters will have to keep the team in the game going up against a very strong Dodger lineup that works the count and makes it really tough on pitchers to get outs.

If the Braves bats can get hot and feed off one another so they’ll need to take advantage of situations with runners in scoring position and 2 out hitting. The key is scoring in those situations as you won’t see many. Should be a great series.

A year that has looked like no other will have a similarly unique finish.

Major League Baseball announced its schedule for the 2020 Postseason, highlighted by the first neutral-site Fall Classic in modern history.

Not only will the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series all be played at neutral-site locations, but the schedule for these series has been altered in terms of off-days, meaning teams will have plenty of decisions to make when it comes to pitching.

The best-of-three Wild Card Series, best-of-five Division Series and best-of-seven League Championship Series will each take place without any off-days in between games. Teams will have to decide whether to use the traditional five-man rotation, or utilize four starting pitchers, with the potential for as many as three of them pitching on short rest.

Each series will be preceded by at least one off-day, though more are possible depending on when other series are completed.

The 116th World Series is slated to start with Game 1 on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Globe Life Field in Arlington. A potential Game 7 is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28.

The postseason is scheduled to commence with the top four seeds in each league hosting a best-of-three Wild Card Series, which are presented by Hankook, in their regular-season home ballparks.

The inaugural Wild Card Series are set to begin in the American League on Tuesday, Sept. 29, and in the National League on Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Beginning with the Division Series, all teams will shift to neutral-site locations in Southern California and Texas for the duration of the Postseason due to health, safety and competitive considerations.

All games in the AL Division Series, which are presented by Utz, will be played in San Diego and Los Angeles, while the NL Division Series, which are presented by Doosan, will take place in Arlington and Houston.

In the AL, the winner of the 1 vs. 8 matchup will face the 4 vs. 5 winner at Petco Park in San Diego, while the winners of the 2 vs. 7 and 3 vs. 6 matchups will square off at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Both best-of-five ALDS will be scheduled for Monday, Oct. 5 through Friday, Oct. 9.

In the NL, Arlington’s Globe Life Field will host the Division Series featuring the winners of the 1 vs. 8 and 4 vs. 5 NL Wild Card Series, while the winners of the 2 vs. 7 and 3 vs. 6 series will play their NLDS at Houston’s Minute Maid Park.

Both best-of-five NLDS will be scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 6 through Saturday, Oct. 10.

San Diego will then host the AL Championship Series, which is presented by GEICO and will air exclusively on TBS, beginning Sunday, Oct. 11. A potential Game 7 would take place on Saturday, Oct. 17.

The NL Championship Series, which is presented by Camping World, will begin in Arlington on Monday, Oct. 12, with a potential Game 7 taking place on Sunday, Oct. 18. The NLCS will air exclusively on FOX or FS1.

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