The Little League Softball World Series reaches its championship game on Sunday, August 9, airing on ABC at 3:00 PM ET. It caps a tournament that has been a first for Disney’s sports arm, with all 22 games carried across ESPN networks rather than streamed off to the app.
All 22 Games, For The First Time
The 52nd edition of the tournament opened Sunday, August 2 at Stallings Stadium at Elm Street Park in Greenville, North Carolina, the event’s home since 2020. Carrying all 22 games across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC is a first in the event’s history, and every one is also available on the ESPN app with an eligible subscription. Admission to the games themselves is free.
Sunday’s final marks the fourth consecutive year the championship has landed on broadcast television. ESPN’s announcement has the full schedule.
What Is Left To Play
Pool play wrapped on Wednesday and the tournament has moved into bracket play. Semifinal games run Thursday on ESPN, consolation and bracket games follow Friday on ESPN2, and the Purple and Orange bracket championships are set for Saturday across ESPN and ESPN2. The two bracket winners meet in Sunday’s final.
The field is twelve teams, eight United States regional champions and four international, playing double elimination in two six-team pods. Squads travelled in from Japan, Canada, Italy and Puerto Rico.
The Disney+ Piece
Disney added a streaming layer at the front of the tournament. Domestically, Disney+ carried all four opening-day games on August 2, and that was the extent of the domestic streaming window. Internationally the platform is doing considerably more, carrying the tournament through ESPN and Disney+ across Latin America, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and select countries in Asia, with Canadian viewers getting it via TSN+.
Putting youth softball on Disney+ at all is the notable part. It was a small test of whether the service can function as a live sports destination rather than a library, using an event with a built-in family audience, and it arrives as Disney talks openly about turning Disney+ into a broader ecosystem with live sports inside it.
Who Is Calling It
ESPN sent two commentary teams. Matt Schick and Jenny Dalton-Hill handled dayside games from Sunday through Tuesday, with Courtney Lyle, Amanda Scarborough and Michele Smith on nights, joined by Kris Budden from August 5 through the final.
The AUSL Pro Game slotted into the middle of the week, airing August 5 on ESPN2, continuing a partnership that gave the AUSL Championship a Toy Story-themed broadcast on ABC earlier this year.
There is a business case underneath the coverage. Little League says team participation in softball is up roughly 25 percent since its Girls with Game initiative launched in 2019, which makes the expanded broadcast commitment look less like goodwill and more like a bet. Little League and ESPN are carrying more than 340 games across ESPN platforms this summer in total, with the Little League Baseball World Series still to come in Williamsport from August 19 through its championship on August 30.
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