July 18 - 24, 2003
Legendary Mitch Stadium
Ceredo-Kenova Little League

2003 Little League 11-12 Year-Old
West Virginia State Tournament

Meet the 8 teams that participated in the
2003 West Virginia Little League State Tournament

District 1 - Barboursville Little League
District 2 - Logan Little League
District 3 - Mountaineer Little League
District 4 - Beckley West Little League
District 5 - Taylor County Little League
District 6 - Hedgesville Little League
District 7 - Fairmont Little League
District 8 - Summersville Little League
 

     Eight of the top teams from around the state of West Virginia battled for the 2003 West Virginia Little League State Championship at Legendary Mitch Stadium.  Fourteen of the fifteen games featured home runs, including three games ended with walk-off home runs hit in the bottom of the sixth. The tournament saw one no-hitter, two semi-finals games decided with the last swing of the bat, and eight great teams.

     Tournament participants got to meet former World Series pitcher Don Robinson and former Houston Astro Jeff Baldwin in a pre-tournament clinic.  After the state tournament parade, players enjoyed the evening at the welcome cook-out and pool party at Dreamland.  Tournament players and coaches were given tournament gifts at the Opening Ceremonies, which honored Ceredo-Kenova's four state championship teams.

     Ray's Key West Grille served up metts and burgers as fans could watch the game from the stands or under the giant tent MSPN (Mitch Stadium Programming Network), a four camera closed-circuit production complete with play-by-play and color commentary.  Fans and could watch the coverage of the game in-progress on one 60-inch television while another group could watch the preceding game on a second big screen.

     The final game of the Saturday evening session between Barboursville and Logan set a stadium attendance record as an announced crowd of 2,412 from Barboursville, Logan, and the local community showed up. A watermelon feast and fireworks display concluded the festivities on Saturday night. 

     Mother nature did her best to spoil the fun, but the groundskeepers at The Mitch did an outstanding job.  The Grounds Crew overcame morning rains on Saturday and Sunday, as well as a severe thunderstorm during the first semifinal Tuesday night.  After the end of the third inning in each game, the Crew replaced the bases with new, clean bags and raked the base baths.  Occasionally, the grounds crew found they just couldn't resist dancing to the beat...

     Hedgesville and Mountaineer battled in the State Championship game.  Hedgesville took the early 7-0 lead, but had to hold off two strong Mountaineer rallies late in the game to hold on to the 12-8 victory.  As both  teams celebrated their season long accomplishments at the pizza party after the championship game, it was announced that Ceredo-Kenova Little League would host the 2004 West Virginia Little League 9-10 Year Old State Tournament.

     Congratulations to everyone who made the 2003 West Virginia Little League State Tournament at Legendary Mitch Stadium in Ceredo-Kenova a tremendous success!