Aug 2, 2016 4 min read

Time ran out on Caribbean Zone champion Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to play in this year’s Pony League Baseball World Series.

Santo Domingo, which qualified for the World Series by winning the Caribbean Zone championship in early July, was forced to pull out of the event Tuesday after just more than half of the team had issues acquiring the proper visa to travel here.

The team was scheduled to open play in the world series at 5:30 p.m., Friday at Lew Hays Pony Field against Mexico Zone winner Los Mochis, Sinaloa.

“It’s disheartening for us and disheartening for Santo Domingo because they qualified to be here,” said Abe Key, president of Washington-based PONY Inc. “We had a 5 p.m. deadline (Tuesday) for them to get things worked out. We just couldn’t wait any longer.”

As a result, an all-star team from Peters Township, which finished second in the Host Zone to Johnstown Monday, replaced Santo Domingo in the 10-team international tournament. It will be the first time in the tournament’s 65 years that a team from Peters Township has participated.

Peters Township is managed by former Pirates pitcher and Peters Township High School standout Chris Peters.

“(Santo Domingo) had eight players who didn’t have travel visas and seven who did,” said Bob Gregg, the world series chairman. “So because of PONY rules, they couldn’t replace them because it wasn’t due to injury. And they couldn’t just pick up eight other players.”

Key and members of his staff, here and in the Dominican Republic, were working hard right up to the final minute to acquire the proper paperwork for the team. But the U.S. State Department tightened its rules on acquiring a visa and the players couldn’t get appointments at the U.S. Embassy in that country in time.

“We worked with the U.S. Embassy, the people in the Dominican, even some major league teams to try to get this done,” said Key. “We talked to the Houston Astros, who were willing to give us some of their appointments for visas, but we just weren’t able to get it done in time.

“We went back and forth Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week, but we just couldn’t get the appointments.”

Finding a replacement team on short notice was troublesome.

Typically, when something like this has happened in the past – though rare – the area where the world series is being played in the United States would have been the first choice, meaning Bronx, N.Y., would have been given the first opportunity. Chesterfield, Va., defeated Bronx, N.Y., Saturday in the East Zone Championship game.

But that team had just traveled back to New York from the East Zone site in High Point, N.C., and there were issues getting to Washington in time to play Friday.

“There are three days to go and we just couldn’t do it,” said Key.

Other zone runners-up were considered, but the close proximity to Washington and the timing made Peters Township the choice, giving this year’s tournament a distinctively Washington County flavor.

Washington Youth Baseball, which has traditionally hosted the event for the majority of its existence, gets an automatic bid into the tournament as the host. This year, WYB merged with Canon-McMillan Youth Baseball at the Pony level, with 10 players from Washington and five from Canonsburg comprising that team.

That team, called Washington County, will open play at 2:30 p.m., Saturday against European Zone champion Paderborn, Germany.

One bonus for Peters Township is that if it beats Los Mochis, its game at 5:30 p.m., Saturday against Taipei County, Taiwan, would be televised locally on WPNT-TV (Channel 22) in Pittsburgh. The station also will televise the championship game Wednesday, Aug. 10.

All other tournament games are available for viewing via a live-viewing package produced by Pikewood Sports and in conjunction with MLB.com.