A watch party for the ESPN2 telecast of the Sweetwater Valley Little League all-star team's opening game in the Little League World Series will begin at 4 p.m. Thursday at La Finca D'Adobe in Bonita.
Sweetwater Valley will face the team representing Kentucky's Bowling Green Eastern Little League, the Great Lakes Regional champion, in the modified double-elimination tournament in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Sweetwater Valley is 16-0 in its four tournaments and outscored its opponents, 50-22, in four games to win the West Regional.
The team from the Bonita-based league is the 11th from San Diego County to qualify for the Little League World Series and third in seven years.
Two San Diego County teams have won the Little League World Series — the 1961 team from the El Cajon-La Mesa Northern Little League, whose roster included future NFL quarterback Brian Sipe, and the 2009 team from Park View Little League in Chula Vista.
Three other San Diego County teams lost in the Little League World Series Championship Game — squads representing the La Mesa Northern Little League in 1957, the El Cajon Western Little League in 1977 and Eastlake Little League in 2013.
Before last year's victory by a team from Seoul, South Korea, a team from either Southern California or Japan had won the Little League World Series for five consecutive years.
