BANGOR – Don’t be surprised if Curacao makes its third straight trip to Bangor for next summer’s Senior League World Series as well as ensuing Series.

They had seven 15-year-olds on this year’s team and they will host the Latin American Regional next season.

And Curacao is represented in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., for the third straight year.

Senior League is for players ages 15-16.

“Next year, a couple of guys who played for the first Williamsport team three years ago will be on this all-star team,” said Jorge Sulbaran, who coaches baseball in Curacao and was on hand to see their team go 4-0 before being ousted by Hilo, Hawaii 3-2 on Friday.

He said there is a lot of talent on the island.

“These kids are athletes. They play three or four sports,” said Sulbaran. “We also play soccer, volleyball and basketball.”

They play baseball throughout the year. The season that leads to the World Series begins in January.

“Our league [Pabao] has seven teams and we play 18 regular season games. Then we select an all-star team and we play a best-of-three series against the other league on the island. We beat them in two games this year,” Sulbaran said.

The team then won the Latin American Regional in Panama by triumphing in five of six games..

“They’ll get a rest and then the season will start again in October,” said Sulbaran.

“We base our program on dedication and discipline. Our kids should perform at school as well as on the field. They have to be a good student,” said Sulbaran.

Football practice on hold

Marcus Childress and Matt Reed aren’t exactly concerned, but the two Central Chesterfield (Va.) Senior League baseball players have missed about a week of football practice.

“We’ve missed maybe six, seven days of it,” Childress said after helping the South champions to a 6-3 win over Urbandale of Iowa, which clinched a berth in Saturday’s World Series championship game. “It’s two-a-days, so it’s not like I’m really missing it, but we need to be there to learn the plays,” We’ll have to learn it all when we get back. It’s gonna be hard.”

Childress, an outfielder and the third batter in the lineup, is a running back-cornerback. Reed, who bats leadoff and plays shortstop, is a wide receiver-cornerback. Childress and Reed play for coach Vic Williams at Thomas Dale High School and will both be juniors.

“He said, you’re playing for a world championship,” Childress said. “He’s understanding. We’ll have to run extra, but it’ll be worth it.”

Childress said Thomas Dale has been a football powerhouse in the area. The Knights were knocked out in the state semifinals last year.

The team plays in Division 6, which is for schools with around 2,000 students. There are about 100 student-athletes on the football team.

Lobster eight-pack

Geoff Dodd figures he might as well get in his fill of lobster while he’s in Maine.

Dodd, a reporter for The Daily Journal (Vineland, N.J.) who has been following East region representative South Vineland, had six lobsters this week and was aiming for two more before leaving Maine Friday.

“In a way it is exotic,” he said. “In New Jersey you’re going to pay about 30 bucks for a lobster tail. Here I can get two full lobsters [for that]. That’s incredible that I can have that opportunity. I never eat lobster unless I come up here.”

Here’s the count: one lobster at Captain Nick’s in Bangor, two at the Lobster Luau in Trenton, and three more at McLaughlin’s Sea Food in Bangor. Dodd planned to pack away another twin lobster dinner at McLaughlin’s before heading south.

Dodd traveled to Bangor with the South Vineland team last year, but only ate one lobster for fear of overspending his meal money.

“My company was giving me $30 a day [last year], and when I came back I found out I was about $50 under budget,” Dodd said. “So I figured, it would just balance out this year. I guess I’ll find out when I get back to the office Monday.”

For the record, Dodd prefers corn-on-the-cob to accompany his lobsters. And hold the drawn butter, please.

Owen Otsuka like a player-coach

Hilo, Hawaii’s Owen Otsuka is more than just the starting catcher. He’s like a player-coach.

“He runs our team. He’s spectacular,” said Hawaii coach Hale Decker who has coached Otsuka for five years.

Otsuka calls the pitches and instills confidence in his pitchers.

He instructed lefty Myles Ioane, who two-hit Curacao, to keep throwing his overpowering curve even with a runner on third.

A curve in the dirt could have allowed the run to score.

“I told him I’d block it. If anything happened, I’d get it,” said Otsuka.

“He’s awesome. He gave me a lot of confidence. That made me want to throw it,” said Ioane (pronounced E-WAHN-eee).

Ioane had been touched up for 14 hits and eight runs in the tourney-opening 8-2 loss to Chesterfield, Va., the team they will meet in the final today.

“We had gone to the [San Francisco] Giants game the day before and didn’t catch a flight until 3:30 in the morning to get here,” said Ioane. “We didn’t have any energy left. We were exhausted and we hadn’t practiced in four days.”

He said he wasn’t nervous prior to Friday’s game against defending champ Curacao.

“I looking forward to the big games, to prove myself I can play ball with these guys,” said Ioane.