GREENVILLE — There will be no repeat champion at this year’s Big League World Series as South Carolina District 7 — the 2008 BLWS champions — fell to South Carolina District 6 in the finals of the state championship.

District 7, which features players from Spartanburg and Laurens counties, defeated District 6 Monday night 3-2 and 3-1 to sweep the series.

S.C. District 7 will now advance to the BLWS Southern Regional in July 17-21, hoping to win a bid to the Big League World Series.

In other BLWS news, the Dominican Republic upset Puerto Rico to earn the second Latin American spot in the series.

Puerto Rico and Mexico rotate the first Latin American spot, with Mexico’s turn being this year.

Puerto Rico, which lost 5-4 to the S.C. District 6 team in the 2008 BLWS Championship, was heavily favored to win the Latin American tournament, played in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Last year, Puerto Rico and the Domincan Republic were both 3-0 in pool play. The teams were scheduled to play each other on the Thursday night before the pool championship games, but a storm caused the game to be delayed. Since both teams had clinched a spot in the pool championship game, the game scheduled for Thursday night was eventually canceled completely.

Puerto Rico defeated the Domincan Republic 9-6 in the pool championship game, to advance to the BLWS title game.

In the 2009 Latin American tournament, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Aruba, the Bahamas, and Curacao joined the host team to compete for the title. Although the teams were divided into two pools, each team played each other in round-robin fashion.

The Dominican Republic finished pool play with a 5-1 record, losing only to Venezuela District 2 7-6.

Puerto Rico’s only loss in pool play was to the Domincan Republic, 13-9.

In the semi-finals, the Dominican Republic defeated Curacao 5-2 and Puerto Rico topped Venezuela District 5 10-0.

The Dominican Republic won the championship game over Puerto Rico 5-4.

Guam will make its first appearance in Easley, represent ing the Asia/Pacific region in the Big League World Series.

The Asia/Pacitic Regional featured Guam, Siapan, Indonesia and the Phillipines. Siapan was 3-0 in pool play, but lost 9-2 to Guam in the championship game.

The regional was played in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The next regional is the Europe-Meteranian-Eastern Africa tournament, set to begin July 6 in Utena, Lithuania.

Check www.theeasleyprogress.com for updates on the Big League World Series.