Hundreds of players and thousands of fans will descend upon Williamsport, Pa., this month, as the 2023 Little League World Series gets under way.
The late summer staple, first played in Williamsport in 1947, again will take place at Howard J. Lamade and Volunteer stadiums in the central Pennsylvania hamlet. It brings the best youth baseball players from disparate corners of the globe to the Keystone State.
So, we decided to take a break from coverage of Pennsylvania sports betting on pro teams like the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates to try to determine the best U.S. Little League champ of the past 10 years.
Utilizing LittleLeague.org, PennStakes.com took past results of the Little League World Series from 2011 to 2022 from the U.S. teams that were the U.S. Champions of that year. With the final record and run differential considered, we ranked the last 10 U.S. champs.
Note: There was no Little League World Series in 2020 due to COVID, as well as just United States’ teams featured in the 2021 tournament. The year of 2014 was scratched from the research due to the removal of Illinois’ championship by Little League officials. From 2012 to 2018, only five games were played by U.S. Champions unless coming from Loser Brackets.
Last 10 U.S. Little League World Series Champions Ranked
Here are the rankings, as compiled by PennStakes.com, your source for PA sportsbook promo codes.
Note: 2011 California and 2017 Texas both had to win loser bracket to qualify for US Championship
Recent LLWS Champs Have Run Table
The best LLWS champions by our metrics all share one thing in common: unblemished records in Williamsport.
Among the 2022 Honolulu-based squad that torched the field by going 6-0 with a +55 run differential and three others between 2016 and 2019 that went 5-0 or 6-0, there’s no shortage of top-line options for the No. 1 squad in recent LLWS history.
The 2022 Hawaiian-based team had the greatest run differential of any team on our list, followed by the 2019 River Ridge, Louisiana squad that outscored their opponents by 36 runs in the event.
Last year’s Hawaiian team beat a team from the Caribbean in the final, 13-3.
Other noteworthy LLWS teams on our list included the 2011 Huntington Beach squad that went 4-2 with a +32 run differential, as well as the 2013 Chula Vista team from the Golden State that went 4-1 with a +27 differential.
This week, California will be represented in the big event by a Little League squad out of El Segundo, squaring off against teams from the Mountain, Metro, Southwest, Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, New England, and the Midwest from the U.S., in addition to a host of international countrie
