As the 2001 Canadian Region tournament opened, one team stood apart from the others.

The tournament's six qualifiers brought a history that included a combined twelve Canadian championships and 43 region tournament appearances since the first all-Canada tournament was held in 1965. Valleyfield made eight trips to the World Series, including four since 1965. Toronto High Park and Victoria Gordon Head were the 2000 and 1999 Canadian champions. Glace Bay was competing in the Canadian finals for the nineteenth time. And the host, Little Mountain Little League, was chartered in 1951 as one of Canada's original leagues.

Prairie Provinces champion Calgary West couldn't match the rich traditions of the other qualifiers -- the Dodgers were competing in the region tournament for the first time in the league's history. While the Dodgers didn't bring a pedigree, they brought something better. They brought Jesse Sawyer and Chris Wilkinson.

Sawyer and Wilkinson combined for five victories at the 2001 Canadian championship tournament at Vancouver's Hillcrest Park, as Calgary West rebounded from a 1-2 start to defeat High Park 5-3 in the championship game. With the win, Calgary West became only the second league from the Prairies to reach the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Lethbridge's Norcrest Little League won the Canadian championship in 1977.

Calgary West's run to the championship was an uphill climb. The Stampede City league split their first four round-robin games, and needed a late rally in their final round-robin game to defeat Little Mountain and avoid elimination. Wilkinson tripled home Matt Schneider with the game's winning run in the bottom of the sixth as the Dodgers rallied past the host league 4-3 to clinch a semifinal round berth. Wilkinson was the game's winning pitcher, striking out six and scattering eight hits as Calgary West rallied from a 2-1 fifth inning deficit.

Sawyer picked up Calgary's other two wins in round-robin play. The 5'10" righthander outdueled High Park's Alex Nyman on the tournament's opening day, throwing a four-hitter as Calgary West rallied for a 2-1 victory. After Calgary suffered losses to Valleyfield and Glace Bay, Sawyer pitched a six-hitter and struck out twelve to lead the Dodgers past Gordon Head 5-2. Sawyer, who moved into the leadoff position in the batting order for the first time as manager Barry Sawyer attempted to shake up his club's dormant offense, led off the game with a homer and added a two-run blast in the second inning. The homers were Jesse Sawyer's 34th and 35th of the summer; he then retired nine of the last ten batters he faced to close out the win. Calgary pounded nine hits in the game, after scratching for just eight in their first three tournament games.

Sawyer was far from the only dominant pitcher in the tournament. Valleyfield pitchers Mickael Deguire, Sylvain Gagnon, and Phillippe Ringuette allowed only fourteen hits in five round-robin games, including a combined five hits in four shutout wins. The 6' tall Deguire no-hit Gordon Head in the tournament's opening game, and later held Calgary to two hits in a 2-0 win. Ringuette two-hit Little Mountain, and Gagnon fired a one-hitter while homering twice against Glace Bay.

Gordon Head's Kyle Orr, whose older brother Brendan played on Gordon Head's 1999 Canadian championship team, also was impressive on the mound, striking out fifteen and holding Glace Bay to three hits in a showdown for a semifinal round berth on the final day of round-robin play.

The top pitching performance of the tournament, however, came in the semifinal round. High Park's Cory Robinson, facing pre-tournament favorite Valleyfield for the second time in the tournament, pitched a perfect game to lead the Braves past the top-seeded Quebec power 7-0. Robinson's two-run double to right field in the third scored Randy Audit and Mathew Mattucci to break a scoreless tie, and High Park extended the lead to 6-0 after four while sending Deguire to his first loss of the summer. Robinson struck out twelve, and went to a full count on only one batter.

Sawyer was overpowering in the second semifinal. Calgary's ace threw a two-hitter and struck out fifteen as the Dodgers eliminated Gordon Head 4-1. Robbie Morrison celebrated his birthday by scoring a pair of runs and driving in two more as Calgary became the first Prairie team to reach the championship game since 1990. Morrison reached on a bunt single in the third, and later scored on Kevin Kobe's double. In the sixth, Morrison's bloop two-run double to center field plated Michael Dussesoy and Schneider. Morrison eventually scored to give Calgary a 4-0 lead before Sawyer closed out his complete game effort in the bottom of the inning.

In the championship game, Wilkinson was in control, striking out nine and allowing only one walk as Calgary clinched a berth in the Little League World Series with a 5-3 win over the defending Canadian champions. Spencer Bajnok scored twice on passed balls to give Calgary its first two runs, and Kobe and Dusessoy delivered bases-loaded RBI singles in the fifth to break a 2-2 tie. Sawyer homered in the sixth to complete Calgary's scoring. Steven Bone and Robinson hit solo home runs for High Park.

At the expanded Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Calgary West won its opener against Khovrino Little League (Moscow, Russia), before dropping a pair of 6-5 decisions. Matamoros LL (Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico) rallied from a 5-1 deficit and Guam Central LL (Hagatna, Guam) overcame 4-2 and 5-4 deficits to win in nine innings as Calgary West finished third in its pool.

Linescores:

Semifinal Round	1	2	3	4	5	6		R	H	E
Toronto High Park	0	0	3	3	0	1		7	-	0
Valleyfield	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	-
Semifinal Round
Calgary West	0	0	1	0	0	3		4	-	-
Victoria Gordon Head	0	0	0	0	0	1		1	2	-
Championship Game
Calgary West	1	0	1	0	2	1		5	8	3
Toronto High Park	0	1	0	1	0	1		3	5	1

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