Little league tourney starts tonight<br>

Prepar-ations on the Williams little leauge baseball field — or, field one — have been made for tonight's opening ceremonies for the Williams Little League 9-10 majors All Star tournament, starting at 5 p.m.

The kids were split into two age groups on June 12 — 9-10-year-olds and 11-12-year-olds — and 12 players were selected from each to form two different All Star teams for the majors category.

Williams will be host to the majors 9-10 tournament, and the action starts tonight with Williams versus Camp Verde on Williams little league field one — the little league field — and the Dewey/Humboldt team versus Sedona on field two — the softball field — both at 5 p.m. At 8 p.m., the Prescott Valley team takes on Chino Valley on field one while it’s Prescott versus Verde Valley on field two. The Williams little league and softball fields are located between the Howard Johnson hotel and the Mobil station on Grand Canyon Boulevard.

The winners of the 5 p.m. games will face each other tomorrow at 5 p.m. on field one and the losing teams will do battle at 7:30 p.m. on field one. The winners of tonight’s 8 p.m. games will face off at 5 p.m. tomorrow on field two. The non-winners there play each other tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. on field two.

Winners of tomorrow’s 5 p.m. games duke it out on Friday on field one at 7:30 p.m., while the losing field one team plays the winner of tomorrow’s 7:30 p.m. field two game at 5 p.m. on field two Friday. The losing team of tomorrow’s 5 p.m. field two game plays the winner of tomorrow’s field one 7:30 p.m. game at 5 p.m. on field one on Friday, then those two winners face off against each other at 11 a.m. on Saturday at field one.

The winner of that game plays the losing team of the Friday 7:30 p.m. game on June 21 at 6:30 p.m. one field one. Whichever team comes out on top will then play the winner of the Friday 7:30 p.m. game at 6:30 p.m. on June 22 at field one.

According to the tournament ladder, those two teams will battle for the title of champions at 6:30 p.m. on June 23 at field one.

The Williams majors 9-10 All Star team will be comprised of players Ty Sherwood, Jeff Brownlee, Cody Dick, Kevin Hilkins, Sam Butler, Jonson Curry, Ivan Ruiz, Adrian Solano, Kenny Herman, Andy Meyers, Wesley Perkins, and Trent Mejia.

Not only will tonight mark the first game of the tourney, but opening ceremonies will begin with the 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. games as well. Williams Little League President Ted Castaneda says there will be vendors, a concession stand for refreshments, and tournament T-shirts will be available. Organizers are also trying to get some of the community’s recently returning soldiers from Iraq to throw out the first pitch, an appearance by Williams Mayor Ken Edes, and possibly a special guest to sing the National Anthem.

“We’ll be looking for the home advantage, and we invite the community to come out in support of the kids and their teams,” Castaneda said.

As for the Williams majors 11-12-year-old All Star tournament, that event will be held in Prescott beginning June 28, and will be featured in an upcoming issue of the News.