Mercer Island Little League All-Stars Looking to Continue Recent Run of Success

The Mercer Island Little League All-Stars are no strangers to success. Recent teams have captured both state and regional championships — and reaching the Little League World Series in 2009 — and the 2011 group is hoping to follow in those footsteps.

The 2011 incarnation of All-Stars spans four age groups in both softball and baseball and is comprised of the best of over 72 teams and 800 participants. Mercer Island is part of the state's Little League Region 9, also representing teams from the Sammamish plateau to Bellevue and north to Redmond. The four tournaments are divided by age group into the following contests:  

• 9-10 year-olds
• 10-11 year-olds
• 10-12 year-olds, also called "Majors"
• 13-14 year-olds, also called "Juniors"

Teams start play in early July as they qualify for district and state tournaments and, if they qualify, can advance to regional and national championships. The Little League Baseball World Series, which Mercer Island reached in 2009, is made up of "Majors" teams.

Past groups have been successful on both the state and regional levels, with 2008 and 2009 fastpitch softball groups taking home state titles and a 2009 baseball group being crowned Northwest Regional Champs. That recent success has cast a spotlight on the programs as a whole.

“We have such a good history over the last five years of success, that the expectations are normally probably higher than they should be," Mercer Island Little League President Tom Gallagher said. "But we’ve just had such good success that it’s a pretty exciting time of the year.”

This year's teams are highlighted by the 10-and-under all-stars, which has several players from the Mercer Island select team that recently won a tournament in Pasco. The 11-and-under's have also had success, advancing to this week's District 9 tournament winner-bracket finals. The 10-and-unders have also advanced to the winner-bracket finals in their age group.

“There’s a lot of kids on the ten-year old team that had some real good success in our select portion of the year, they won the last tournament they were in in Pasco the elevens did very well over there too, so we feel like we’ve got some very strong teams heading into all-stars," Gallagher said. "So it should be a good all-star season.”

The 10-and-unders play tonight at Everest Field in Kirkland at 6 p.m., while the 11-and-unders play at the same time at Hidden Valley Park in Bellevue.  

The oldest age group gets started on July 9, with the "Majors" 12-and-unders opening on Saturday against Kirkland National at 1 p.m. at Hartman Park in Redmond. The 14-and-unders have already started play and play in the loser-bracket finals tonight at 6 p.m. at Newport High School in Bellevue for the chance to advance to the district championship round.

The softball all-stars have also gotten off to a successful start, with the 11-and-unders playing in the district championship game on Friday night at 6 p.m. at Torguson Park in North Bend. The 14-and-unders get started on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Everest Park in Kirkland.