WASHINGTON, PA (August 6, 2024) - Long Beach’s Heartwell PONY program has won PONY Baseball’s West Zone to qualify for the 2024 Printscape PONY League World Series. 

The West Zone tournament, hosted in West Covina, CA, consisted of eight teams from California, Washington, and Hawaii.The Heartwell program went 4-1 in the Zone tournament, with its only loss coming to Kauai, HI. In its five games, Long Beach (Heartwell) outscored its opponents 44-22. 

Heartwell’s coach, Matt Paige, believes his team is poised to compete despite being a small local program.

“We have a small league of only six teams that has produced teams that have been to the World Series now six times, winning in 2003,” Paige said. “Our program has produced 24 MLB players, including the current players of Travis d'Arnaud, Justin Turner, Jonathan Singleton, Matt Duffy, and JP Crawford.”

The Heartwell Long Beach program previously qualified for the World Series as Lakewood, CA, making appearances in 1966, 1972, 1987, 1990, and 2003. The 2003 Lakewood (now Heartwell) squad won the World Series title. 

Long Beach (Heartwell) will play its first game against Guaynabo, PR, on Friday, Aug. 9, at 7:30 PM/ET at Lew Hays PONY Field in Washington, PA.

Printscape PONY League World Series

The Printscape PONY League World Series is an international youth baseball tournament played annually at Lew Hays PONY Field in Washington, PA. The World Series annually attracts over 30,000 fans and contributes over $6 million to the regional economy, with all games livestreamed domestically and internationally. The tournament represents PONY Baseball's 13- and 14-year-old age division. PONY has over 500,000 players ages 3-23 in more than 50 countries. More information is available at plws.org.