\u2018It\u2019s crazy\u2019: Victoria Bulldogs bound for Little League World Series<\/p>\n
Published 9:50 am Thursday, July 30, 2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought that would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments after the final out settled into the glove of catcher Sam Whiteside on Wednesday (July 29), Desmond Howard stood surrounded by celebrating teammates, still trying to process what the Victoria Bulldogs had just accomplished.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy,\u201d Howard said amid the Bulldogs\u2019 celebration.<\/p>\n
It certainly is.<\/p>\n
With a 5-2 victory over Quebec\u2019s Diamond Baseball Academy in the deciding game of the best-of-three Canadian Intermediate Little League Championship, the Bulldogs became the first Vancouver Island team to earn a berth at the Intermediate Little League World Series.<\/p>\n
The District 7 all-star squad, made up of 13-and-under players from Beacon Hill, Central Saanich, Hampton, Layritz and National little leagues, will now represent Canada as the country\u2019s lone entry at the 12-team tournament in Livermore, Calif., from Aug. 2 to 9.<\/p>\n
The turnaround is quick. The Bulldogs fly to California on Friday (July 31) before opening the tournament against Czechia on Sunday (Aug. 2).<\/p>\n
The Intermediate Little League World Series has been held since 2013, but no Vancouver Island team had qualified until now.<\/p>\n
Less than 24 hours earlier, the Bulldogs had been shut out 8-0 after being no-hit by Adrian Shih of the Diamond Baseball Academy, forcing a winner-take-all Game 3.<\/p>\n
There was little sign of any lingering disappointment Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Victoria jumped on Quebec early and never surrendered control, bouncing back after opening the championship series with a 13-5 win before dropping Game 2.<\/p>\n
Matt Mickelson threw 92 pitches over nearly seven innings before turning the ball over to the bullpen in the seventh. While Howard, who hit two home runs in the regional championship game on July 25, repeated the feat in the national final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t say enough about this team,\u201d manager Will Whiteside said. \u201cThe resolve after what happened yesterday, getting no-hit by them, to come out and jump on them in the first inning. Again, the guy we talked about, Desmond Howard, sparked us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whiteside also credited Jace Hansen for steadying the game in relief before Jackson Inami Bercovitz closed the door in the final inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re off to California,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to getting down there and just experiencing it with this group.\u201d<\/p>\n
The accomplishment is even more remarkable considering the program itself is still in its infancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just started this program last September, and to be going to the World Series in year one, we didn\u2019t expect this at all,\u201d assistant coach David Halliwell said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the boys and all the hard work they put in.\u201d<\/p>\n
After cruising through the regional tournament unbeaten, Halliwell said the coaching staff wasn\u2019t surprised to see the players respond after Tuesday\u2019s setback.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came right back ready to roll today and got it done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Howard, the run has been unlike anything he imagined.<\/p>\n
The National Little League product has spent the last eight years playing baseball, but representing Canada on the world stage had never crossed his mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought that would happen,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of fans packed the ballpark for Wednesday\u2019s championship game, including a large contingent of young Little Leaguers hoping to catch a glimpse of history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids absolutely love it,\u201d Whiteside said. \u201cI can\u2019t say enough thanks to the people that gave up work today to come out here and bring their kids. It gives them something to dream for, something to reach for as they continue playing baseball. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about. Little League is sort of the top of the mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the Bulldogs get their chance to climb it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s crazy\u2019: Victoria Bulldogs bound for Little League World Series Published 9:50 am Thursday, July 30, 2026 \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-837625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}