(featured photo of Aston Middletown Head Coach Sean Moule and pitcher Bryce Moore from last year’s 12 year old Championship win over NELL)

When I started this website/social media platform back in the summer of 2022, the main focus was on the Delco League, the oldest semi-professional baseball league in the country that has the best local high school, college, and postgrad players all competing against each other.

Next up, we added high school coverage in the spring of 2023, and I thought that was going to be what became our biggest area of coverage.

Then, the Media Little League 2023 team happened.

That lovable group of kids that stormed through the state of Pennsylvania without even one loss made it all the way to Williamsport and had all of Delco tuning in. They helped us nearly double our following and I’ll always be grateful for that, but it really showed how much these communities can rally around the little league teams.

With that being said, let’s take a look at the brackets for this year’s District 19 Little League tournament, which is split up into three age groups:

• 10 year olds (and under, if a younger player is talented enough)
• 11 year olds
• 12 year olds (this is the age where you can make it to the Little League World Series)

10 Year Olds:

11 Year Olds:

12 Year Olds:

Notes:

• There really isn’t much that we know about the 10 year old level since this is the first year for these district teams.

• Ridley is the surefire favorite in the 11 year old division. They won every single district game by 8+ runs including three mercy rule wins in four games last year at the 10 year old level. They also only allowed two total runs in those four games and made it all the way to the state title before falling to Hollidaysburg. Aston-Middletown made it to the district final before they fell to Ridley, so those are the two favorites going in.

• Newtown-Edgmont is likely the favorite going into the 12 year old bracket. The “Sock Puppets” as they were known as last year won the district title when they were 11 and won Sectionals as well before falling in states. That doesn’t always translate as a lot happens at this age physically to these kids in terms of growth, but they are certainly looking like the favorites at the moment.

• This doesn’t really have an impact on this year by any mean’s but Aston-Middletown took down Newtown-Edgmont in last year’s 12 year old title. Nate DeBellis hit a walk-off home run for NELL to force the “if necessary” game, but NELL ran out of pitching and Aston-Middletown won 11-1 to capture the title. AMLL hosted Sectionals but were eliminated after three games.

• As a Media Little League alum myself (not the district team, I was always on the “B” team but oh well), it warms my heart to see 8:00 PM games at Media. I waited my whole life to see lights at that complex which has just about everything else you could ask for and it’s very cool to see them get to host night games finally.

• The best snack bar in District 19 still has to go to Newtown-Edgmont in my opinion, but Drexel Hill certainly makes a strong case as well.