NEW ORLEANS – Greater New Orleans (GNO) Little League will represent Louisiana next week in the Little League Baseball Southwest Region Tournament after winning the state title in Broussard, Louisiana, on Wednesday night.
GNO Little League’s 12U Majors team will play Oklahoma on Thursday, Aug. 1, at 1 p.m., at Marvin Norcross Stadium in Waco, Texas, in the first round of the Southwest Region Tournament, which will be televised nationally on ESPN+.
The winner of the Louisiana-Oklahoma game will play again Saturday, Aug. 3, at 1 p.m. The team that loses will have a chance to fight its way back into the winner’s bracket by playing in the elimination bracket on Saturday, Aug. 3, at 4 p.m. All games will be televised on ESPN or ESPN+.
The teams competing in the Southwest Region are Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas East and Texas West. The Southwest Region championship game will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 6 p.m., and the winner will then represent the Southwest Region in the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
GNO Little League partnered for the first time this year with the Jefferson Parish Parks & Recreation Department (JPRD) to expand baseball opportunities to children in Jefferson Parish. The league’s boundaries encompass the majority of Orleans Parish, the west bank of Jefferson Parish, and portions of Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes.
The partnership with JPRD helped GNO Little League win its first state title, after the 12U team took home the Louisiana District 2 crown earlier this month.
“Congratulations to our 12U GNO-JPRD team for winning the state tournament this past weekend and emerging undefeated from the district tournament prior to that,” said Derek Anderson, the team’s head coach. “This is an incredible accomplishment for our 12U team and an exciting milestone in the inaugural year of our partnership with Greater New Orleans Little League.”
The team members are Dominic Barranco, Zayne Barrett, Kole Cao, Brandt Deeke, Benjamin Florane, Sayid Jabbar, Cy Kirklin, Chase LeBlanc, Kamren Lew, Christopher Newsome Jr., Lane Pastor and Landon Valladares. The coaches are Derek Anderson, Kenny Lew and Bryan Pastor.
The partnership between GNO Little League and JPRD has provided nearly 1,000 children with more accessible and more affordable opportunities to play baseball than ever before, Anderson said.
“This year, GNO Little League partnered with JPRD to extend the joy of Little League baseball to many more children,” said Christopher Newsome, president of GNO Little League. “Thanks to JPRD’s tremendous support, we were able to charge just $25 per family, which included a jersey, hat and all Little League registration fees. While we celebrate our 12U Majors team heading to Waco, we’re also excited to continue offering our affordable and high-quality program to even more kids next year.”
Further, Little League International allows children ages 7 and younger to play with any league, regardless of where they live. Newsome said he looks forward to welcoming more families into the league from both the east and west banks of the Greater New Orleans area.
For more information about GNO Little League, please visit gnojprdlittleleague.org. For more information about the Jefferson Parish Parks & Recreation Department (JPRD), visit www.JPRD.com.
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