The Illinois Sparks won their pool with a perfect 5-0 record. They beat the Florida Stars, Chain Baseball (GA), Lefty’s Lightening (NJ), Upstate Mavericks (SC), ABD Red Dogs (CA) and the Georgia Bats in the pool play.
They are now in the final 4 of the 186 team WWBA 18U Championship. The Sparks won three games yesterday in the playoffs. They defeated the South Charlotte Panthers in the first round in a 2-1 thriller. They then run ruled Syracuse Chiefs (NY). Then they beat the East Cobb Astros to reach the final four.
Today they play the East Cobb Yankees in a semifinal game. The other two teams left among many of the top programs in the country are the Florida Bombers and the South Carolina Bombers. If the Sparks can beat East Cobb they will play the winner of that game.
Quite a showing as this is the first time a northern team has ever been to the final four of this tournament. The Sparks are now 8-0 against teams from NJ, NY, FL, GA, SC, CA, and NC.
The buzz here in Atlanta revolves around the talent on this Illinois team, but even more talk about the way this team conducts themselves in such a professional manner. We all know about Illinois baseball, but people in Illinois should be very proud of what this group has already accomplished on a national stage here!
Posts: 4838 | Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa | Registered: December 27, 2002
Congrats to the Sparks! Hopefully they can win, it would be great for IL baseball. The McHenry County Hurricanes also played in the tournament, and went 3-1-1, a very respectable showing.
Posts: 25 | Location: Dream | Registered: May 19, 2008
Sparks lose 3-2. What a great accomplishment. 2nd out of 184 teams in the top 18u event in the nation! Farthest a northern team has ever went in the WWBA World Series.
Posts: 25 | Location: Dream | Registered: May 19, 2008
that's great for the representation of the talent in Illinois.
I have a question, is this just an All-Star team that was built this year to compete in a national tournament like this? Because I see alot of kids on the roster that were on different teams last year or didn't play with the Sparks last year. So do these kids just play for them this year as 18s with the goal of trying to run out the best IL kids at the 18u level to compete nationally? I thought i'd see most of the kids on the roster be kids who were with the Sparks for multiple years but I didn't. Just curious how it works.
Posts: 348 | Location: Illinois | Registered: May 12, 2008
Congratulations to the Sparks, Bullets and Hurricanes on all their strong showings at the PG event. It just goes to show you how strong Illinois baseball has become. Best of luck to the Sparks today and bring home the ship!
The Sparks roster that is linked to the Perfect Game website is not accurate -- it lists some players who weren't even in attendance competing this week and omits at least one, if not several, who did play in games this week. Hopefully Perfect Game will update the roster soon to accurately reflect who played for the Illinois Sparks at the WWBA National Championship.
Posts: 6 | Location: South suburbs | Registered: July 31, 2006
congrats to the sparks, very classy team and obviously a team full of talent. They played our 17 yr old team and roughed em up pretty bad, but always conducted themselves in a professional manner.
Posts: 66 | Location: villa park illinois | Registered: March 24, 2007
