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(June 2026) -- We have added historical coverage of the Kentucky state tournament to the Unpage site! Click on the left side of this page to explore results from Kentucky state tournament dating back to the first tournament in 1952. As part of this expansion, we are commencing our coverage of the 2026 Kentucky state tournament -- click for details. If you can provide results or pairings for Kentucky tournaments that are not listed on this site, please contact the Unpage. ----- 2026 brings our 30th and final summer of coverage for the international tournament, and our coverage this year will begin with post-district tournament competition.
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Our coverage of the Kentucky state tournament launched on May 31, 2026. Click to contact the webmaster with any comments or questions about this site.
Little League Baseball came to Kentucky in 1950 when the state's first league was chartered in Murray. Little League Founder and Commissioner Carl Stotz visited Murray on one of his many barnstorming tours to spread interest in Little League Baseball. His early January stop attracted some 50 attendees from Western Kentucky and Tennessee, including Murray High School athletic coach Preston Holland. Local officials soon commenced organizing activities, and Murray's new league begins play on June 26, 1950, with a pair of exhibition games.
The next year, Murray Little League became the first Kentucky team to enter the international tournament when it competed alongside seven leagues from Western Tennessee in a district tournament held in Paris, Tennessee. Murray fell to Milan Little League (Tennessee), 4-1, in an opening round game, and Kentucky leagues have returned to compete in every international tournament since that debut.
While Murray commenced play in 1950, another Kentucky locale soon laid important groundwork toward its first leagues. Charles Hoagland, Director of Playgrounds and Recreation for the city of Lexington, fell into a conversation with several national Little League officials while attending a recreation conference in Cleveland, and soon began working to establish a program in Lexington. Lexington's 'Little Major League' began play in 1951. While modeleling their program after Williamsport's rules, Lexington officials did not initially seek an official charter as their league could not fully meet Little League regulations. (Lexington's six-team league was larger than the four-team structure required at the time, and the city's chosen playing field, a softball diamond at Woodland Park, did not yet meet Little League standards. Installing the required outfield fence would impact softball league play, and Woodland Park's pitching rubber was 46 feet from home plate rather than the 44 feet that was standard for Little League Baseball at the time.)
Judging the program a success, Lexington officials established three officially chartered leagues in the city in 1953, including Lexington Eastern Little League, which remains Kentucky's longest continually chartered league. Lexington mayor Fred Fugazzi threw out the first pitch before Gene Hill delivered a complete game four-hitter as his Yankees team downed the White Sox, 6-3, in Lexington's first official Little League game, a Lexington Southern Little League contest played at Woodland Park on Monday, May 26, 1952. City officials later reported that Lexington's new leagues had 955 spectators in their first week of activity.
While Lexington's three newly chartered leagues doubled the number of teams from six to twelve, local officials were concerned that many aspiring players were still turned away, as 345 children had expressend interest in playing but only 180 roster slots were available based on the capacity of games possible at Woodland Park. City officials resolved this in 1953, when the Lexington Junior Chamber of Commerce committed $4,400 in funding (roughly equivalent to $55,000 in 2026) to construct a dedicated field, including bleachers, fences, and a scoreboard, at Castlewood Park on the city's Northeast side.
While Lexington's new leagues established their footholds, four other Kentucky communities -- Harlan, Henderson, Hopkinsville, and Owensboro -- also chartered leagues in 1953, and these four joined their Lexington and Murray counterparts later that summer in the first Kentucky state tournament. Leagues were grouped into two area tournaments, with Harlan and Owensboro emerging as champions and meeting at Woodland Park in Lexington for the state championship. Owensboro topped Harlan, 6-0, to claim the Bluegrass State's first title. The tournament was one of four districts in a Kentucky-Tennessee sectional (Tennessee had 27 chartered leagues in 1952 compared to Kentucky's eight), and Owensboro later fell to Columbia Little League (Tennessee) in the sectional championship game. Kentucky's league count continued to grow, and beginning in 1953, the state's leagues were organized into four or five districts that preceded a state tournament. Kentucky's champion advanced directly to the Region 5 tournament, which involved champions from most Southeastern states.
Kentucky has held a state tournament in every year since the inaugural 1952 tourney. Little League Baseball later established a nationwide state-based system for its tournament competition, and in 1957, Kentucky was assigned to the Southern Region. The next year, Kentucky officials established a four-district arrangement that is the foundation upon which the state's current district structure is based. Today, all Kentucky district champions, as well as a second team from the host district, advance to the state tournament and compete for a berth in region tournament competition.
Kentucky was reassigned to the Central Region beginning in 2000. (This change, which swapped Kentucky with Oklahoma, was a precursor to the creation of Little League Baseball's Southwest Region.) When the Little League World Series field was expanded from eight to sixteen teams in 2001, Kentucky was assigned to the Great Lakes Region. Kentucky leagues compete alongside other Great Lakes states today for a berth in the Little League World Series.
Ten Kentucky leagues have advanced to the Little League World Series. Gardenside Lake Little League from Lexington became the state's first qualifier when it won the Southern Region tournament in 1971. Valley Sports American Little League from Kentucky achieved the state's highest-ever finish, defeating Sendai Higashi Little League from Japan, 1-0, to win the Little League World Series in 2002.
| Kentucky Little League World Series Qualifiers | |
| Year | League |
| 1971 | Gardenside Little League (Lexington) |
| 1978 | South Lexington Little League |
| 2002 | Valley Sports American Little League (Louisville) Little League World Series champions |
| 2004 | Owensboro Southern Little League |
| 2005 | Owensboro Southern Little League |
| 2009 | Logan County/Russellville Little League (Russellville) |
| 2011 | North Oldham Little League (LaGrange) |
| 2015 | Bowling Green East Little League |
| 2016 | Bowling Green East Little League |
| 2019 | Bowling Green East Little League |
Click to view a timeline showing the evolution of the Kentucky Little League tournament structure.
 Great Lakes Region |
Mountain Region |
Southeast Region |
| Metro Region |
New England Region |
Southwest Region |
| Mid-Atlantic Region |
Northwest Region |
West Region |
| Midwest Region |
| Asia-Pacific Region NEW FOR 2026! |
Cuba |
France |
| Australia Region |
Czechia |
Japanese Region |
| Canadian Region |
Europe-Africa Region NEW FOR 2026! |
Latin America Region NEW FOR 2026! |
| Caribbean Region NEW FOR 2026! |
| Alabama |
Iowa |
North Carolina |
| Alaska |
Kansas |
Ohio NEW FOR 2026! |
| Arizona |
Kentucky NEW FOR 2026! |
Ontario |
| British Columbia |
Maine |
Oregon |
| California (Northern) |
Maryland |
Pennsylvania |
| California (Southern) |
Massachusetts |
Rhode Island |
| Colorado |
Michigan |
South Dakota |
| Connecticut |
Minnesota |
Tennessee |
| Delaware |
Missouri |
Texas (East and West) |
| District of Columbia |
Montana |
Utah NEW FOR 2026! |
| Florida |
Nebraska |
Vermont |
| Georgia |
Nevada |
Virginia |
| Hawaii |
New Hampshire |
Washington |
| Idaho |
New Jersey |
Wisconsin |
| Illinois |
New Mexico |
Wyoming |
| Indiana |
New York |
| Central Region |
Southern Region |
Western Region |
| Eastern Region |
| Region 1 |
Region 4 |
Region 7 |
| Region 2 |
Region 5 |
Region 8 |
| Region 3 |
Region 6 |