The first of 10 qualifying tournaments for the 2008 Senior League World Series gets under way this weekend, all leading to the world championship game at Bangor’s Mansfield Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 16.

The Asia-Pacific Senior League Championships begin Saturday at Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and is one of two qualifying tourneys that will crown their representatives to the SLWS on July 4.

The EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Africa) championships are set to begin next Tuesday at Utena, Lithuania, and continue through July 4.

Asia-Pacific and EMEA are two of the four international regions that annually send their best teams of 14- through 16-year-old baseball players to Bangor for the SLWS.

The Latin American championships are scheduled for July 5-12 at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, while the Canadian Senior League Championships will run July 31-Aug. 8 at River Oaks Park in Oakville, Ontario.

Those international qualifiers will be joined by six American champions, including the host Maine District 3 winner that will be determined July 22 or 23.

Other U.S. regional tournaments are scheduled shortly before the Senior League World Series, with the East qualifier at West Deptford, N.J., Aug. 1-7; West at Upland, Calif., July 29-Aug. 5; Southwest at Seguin, Texas, July 31-Aug. 6; South at Viera/Suntree, Fla., Aug. 1-6; and Central at Columbia, Mo., July 31-Aug. 6.

The Senior League World Series runs from Aug. 10-16 at Mansfield Stadium, with five days of pool play beginning at noon Sunday, Aug. 10, when host Maine District 3 squares off against Canada.

The top two teams in each of the two five-team pools advance to semifinals on Friday, Aug. 15, followed by the world championship game at 3 p.m. the following afternoon.

This will mark the seventh year the Senior League World Series has been held in Bangor.

U.S. South champion Cartersville, Ga., which lost its first two games of pool play last year and advanced to the semifinals via a three-way tiebreaker, defeated Latin America winner Falcon, Venezuela, 9-0 in the 2007 title game.

Other SLWS champions since the event has been held in Bangor are Willemstad, Curacao (2002), Hilo, Hawaii (2003), Freehold Township, N.J. (2004), Urbandale, Iowa (2005) and Falcon, Venezuela (2006).

As was the case last year, this year’s championship game is slated to be televised live on one of the ESPN family of networks.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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