Canada's best young baseball players battle at Little League championship in Ancaster

Baseball teams from across Canada have gathered in Ancaster to decide which team will don the county's colours to take on the rest of the world during the Little League World Series.

CBC Sports reporter Matthew Cullen has been right in the action, providing the play-by-play for every game. We caught up with him to get his thoughts on the atmosphere, excitement and highlights so far. 

How are things going?

Today is Day 6 of the round-robin tournament that will decide the top four teams which will play in semi-final elimination games on Friday. The championship game is Saturday and the winner will go to Williamsport Pa. as Team Canada to play in the Little League World Series.

Right now there are two teams that are undefeated, B.C. from Coquitlam Little League and then Mirabel Diamonds, just outside Montreal. They're in a class of their own at the moment. It will be a big game when they play the last day of the round robin. But Ontario, which is Ottawa West, is three and one. They're off to a decent start. There's kind of a battle for the fourth and final spot. Ancaster is not out of it. They're one and four. We should get some answers here in the next couple of days.

What has the reception been like from the fans in Ancaster?

They really like their Little League here. They actually hosted the championship in 2010 so there's a bit of a tradition here. Veteran's Memorial Field here is great. It's right at the bottom of a hill from downtown Ancaster so you get people and families with sun umbrellas all the way up the hill. For the night games, it's been packed. There have been at least a couple hundred people here, maybe even a couple thousand for some of the big games. The atmosphere has been fun and there's been some great baseball.

Have there been any standout plays or highlights so far?

There have been some really good defensive plays and I think we're already in double digits now for home runs. Quebec has, by far, the most powerful bats. There's a guy named Alec Mercier who has hit four home runs I think. When he was swinging for the fences there's a massive crowd that will come around in hopes he hits a home run.

What's the atmosphere like?

The energy is great. These kids are 10-12 years old and to get the chance to come to a national championship at that age is pretty unique. For a lot of them it's their first time travelling without their parents so it's an exciting, kind of nerve-racking time.

They're all staying in the same dormitories, except for Ancaster, and there's a lot of bonding, they play football and soccer against each other on their off days. Every team has gotten to know each other really well. Everybody wants to go to Williamsport. Everyone wants to be Team Canada because only a select number of kids gets to wear the Team Canada sweater, right? So there's a lot on the line. The love of the game is pretty apparent here.

What's your pitch to fans who haven't had a chance to check out the championship yet?

The quality of baseball overall has been very, very good. People pay a lot of money to see good baseball at the professional level. This is free and there's been some action that's had people at the edge of their seats.

It's very refreshing to see kids play a ball game. With the professionals it can kind of become a mundane routine, especially at this point in the baseball season — the dog days of August. It's really refreshing to see some new faces and new energy on the diamond. Also, eventually, one of these teams will be Team Canada at the Little League World Series.

So, where can fans catch the games?

You can come check out the action in Ancaster, of course. You can also watch all of the games on cbc.ca, the CBC Sports app and Gem. We're doing every round robin game and then the semi finals and finals will be on CBC Network television.