KUWAIT CITY, Feb 2: The Kuwait Little League (KLL) Baseball and Softball season continued over the weekend with matches played in all divisions. With the five-nation invitational tournament behind them, all teams in the various divisions settled down to business over the weekend, battling it out to boost their league standings. The Challenger division, a special division of the Little League established recently to enable boys and girls with physical and/or developmental challenges, ages 6 - 12, to participate in an athletic environment structured to their abilities, saw two matches played pitting Padres playing against Marlins on the latter’s home turf.

The second match featured Giants against Red Sox. Both matches were played at different times on the T-Ball field. KLL is the first league in the Middle East and Africa region to have a Challenger Division.
In the other weekend fixtures, Marlins faced Jays, Reds battled Angels while Tigers played against Rays in the T-Ball division which is intended as an introduction for children to develop baseball skills and have fun.

In T-Ball, score is not kept and rules are designed to maximize participation: an inning is completed once each child has had a turn at bat and all extra players of the defensive team play in the outfield every inning. Once the defensive team has made three outs, the team at bat plays defense and the defensive team takes the bat. To encourage the defensive team to try to make plays, there are typically no extra bases on overthrows and runners may not advance after the ball is in possession of an infielder.

In the Minors division, Braves played against Rangers and Astros against Indians whereas in the Majors2 Division Indians faced off against Cardinals and Red Sox against Giants. The Majors division saw Rays play against Red Sox Friday while Marlins also took their turn in battle against Red Sox on Saturday.

Softball division games saw Mets battle against Marlins while Rangers faced off with Red Sox. Padres played against Orioles on Friday while Marlins also faced Orioles on Saturday in the Juniors division. Reds faced Red Sox Friday while Nationals took their turn against Red Sox on Saturday. Alex Saleh, a parent with three kids participating in the T-Ball division and country manager for Tamimi Company, one of KLL’s long-standing sponsors stated that he grew up playing baseball and that it’s important that his children learn to play for the fun. He added that the children getting together over the weekend is an opportunity for them to also socialize with their peers.

Speaking to Arab Times, Mercy Boujarwah, an official of KLL, said the Little League this year will have a split season championship.  Midway through the season in six weeks, there’d be a championship game played to pick the champion for that period and another championship for the final six weeks of the season. If a different team emerges the champion other than the champion of the first half of the tournament, then there’d be a playoff between the two champions to determine the overall champion for the season.