cousins<\/a> with Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk. The big-leaguer played Little League at Tijuana Municipal.<\/p>\nFriends Katherine Olmos and Jessica Aguirre strolled around the Little League International Complex on Wednesday. Olmos, the mother of Gael Santamar\u00eda, was wearing a Mexico shirt. Aguirre, the mother of Isaac Ram\u00edrez, wore one from the West Region. They became friends about five years ago when their kids competed in a tournament in Tijuana.<\/p>\n
Aguirre said that many kids on the Sweetwater Valley and Tijuana Municipal teams met each other the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is already a once-in-a-lifetime experience,\u201d she said. \u201cBut being here with the players (our kids) grew up playing baseball with, even though on different teams, is something very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sweetwater](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/SUT-L-llwsxol-0820-006.jpg\")
Sweetwater Valley, representing the U.S. West Region, players wave to fans during the Little League World Series Opening Ceremonies at Little League International Complex on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Some players from both teams, including Ram\u00edrez, either play or used to play together on the Chula Vista Rhinos travel team.\u00a0Winnick coached Tijuana\u2019s Emiliano Kerber and Santamar\u00eda on the Grind Baseball San Diego travel team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great, but I\u2019m also nervous,\u201d said Tijuana Municipal player Jean Paul Lavenant about playing on a different team than Sweetwater Valley\u2019s Ram\u00edrez and Jes\u00fas Cuadra, whom he once shared the field with.<\/p>\n
The same goes for Tijuana\u2019s Gareth Garc\u00eda, who said he has known the Sweetwater Valley players for years. \u201cThey play very good baseball,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Little League World Series splits 20 teams into two brackets, International and United States.<\/p>\n
The only way Sweetwater Valley and Tijuana Municipal would play each other is if both make the Aug. 30 final.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a magnificent championship game. Just imagine,\u201d said Francisco Fimbres, coach of Tijuana Municipal. \u201cWe\u2019d love that. Hopefully, we can both make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Box: Rain washes away LLWS openers<\/p>\n
Both Tijuana Municipal and Sweetwater Valley will open Little League World Series play on Friday morning after Thursday\u2019s games were rained out.<\/p>\n
Tijuana Municipal will play Australia at 6 a.m. PDT Friday in a game that will not be televised. Sweetwater Valley will play Davenport, Iowa at 9 a.m. on ESPN2.<\/p>\n
The games were rescheduled after thunderstorms swept through South Williamsport, Pa., home of the two-week tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit frustrating,\u201d Tijuana Municipal coach Francisco Fimbres said. \u201cWe had the excitement of the first game, the enthusiasm, the energy (\u2026) But, well, Tl\u00e1loc (the god of rain) didn\u2019t want us to play today, so we\u2019ll have to wait until tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fimbres said the players are disappointed that Friday\u2019s game won\u2019t air on TV, but understand that certain things are out of their control.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had hoped that their grandparents, uncles and aunts, siblings, and friends would watch them on TV,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. \u2014 As the Sweetwater Valley team paraded around the field during the Little League Baseball…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1014193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[22895,5229,1582,276,61967,3549,7264,405814,405815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1014192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-alejandro-kirk","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-little-league-world-series","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-sweetwater-valley","tag-tijuana-municipal-little-league","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117131522341568290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1014193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Mexico](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/SUT-L-llwsxol-0820-001.jpg\")
Mexico fans cheer during the Little League World Series Opening Ceremonies at Little League International Complex on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n