Petaluma Little League Team Wins First World Series Game

Update at 2:15 p.m: Petaluma wins! The final score is 6-4. The team goes on to its next game Sunday Aug. 19 at 11 a.m. Pacific time, against the winner of Game 4 which begins at 5 p.m. Thursday -- either Kearney, Neb. or Goodlettsville, TN. The game will be televised by ABC and ESPN 3D.

If they lose that game, they play again on Monday. If they win, they play on Wednesday. In this tournament, teams have to lose twice to be eliminated.

Update at 1:30 p.m: Petaluma is winning 5-2 in the top of the fifth inning.

Update at 1:05 p.m: Petaluma is winning 3-1 in the bottom of the third inning.

It's a big day in Petaluma. The Petaluma National Little League majors division all-star team plays in the league's World Series today in Williamsport, Pa.

The Petaluma team of 12- and 13-year-olds swept through the Western regional tournament, going 6-0, to qualify for the World Series and become the first team from the North Bay to go to the global tournament.

Petaluma will play the New England champion, Fairfield American Little League of Fairfield, Connecticut at 12:00 p.m. You can watch live on ESPN if you have a password from a cable provider.

Or if you are in Petaluma, you can watch at Boulevard Cinemas at 200 C Street for $15.

And you can follow box scores live on a  Little League site.

The Marin Independent Journal offers this explanation of the challenge ahead of the Petaluma team:

Petaluma National will need to survive the eight-team U.S. bracket, which is essentially a double-elimination tournament that concludes with the U.S. championship on Aug. 25. The U.S. champion will then face the international bracket champ — which will come from an eight-team field that includes teams from Chinese Taipei, Canada, Curacao, Germany, Japan, Panama, Uganda and Mexico — for the Little League World Series title on Aug. 26.

The newspaper is sending photos from the tournament.

You can see player profiles on Baseball Factory, including this video of Bradley Smith.