(EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was provided to the Times News by Jennifer Laible to document her son Ethan’s experience at the Caribbean Region baseball tournament this summer).

Do you ever wonder what baseball looks like around the world?

Local Little Leaguer Ethan Laible recently had the opportunity of a lifetime to see the Caribbean Region Championship in Curacao this summer.

Five years ago, Ethan Laible’s sister, Anna, started writing for Sports Illustrated Kids. Her first pitch was to cover the Little League World Series in Williamsport.

Ethan tagged along with the family to see some great baseball and dream about making it to Williamsport when he was 12.

He first met the players from Curacao, who represented the Caribbean Region in 2019, at the MLB Little League Classic when the Chicago Cubs were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“I was going around to get some pictures and signatures and they were all super nice and the rest was history,” Ethan said.

While attending games in 2021, 2022, and 2023, Ethan enjoyed interacting with players from various countries and parts of the U.S. and getting their autographs. He even got to meet President Bush.

Anna left for college last year, and his parents decided to take him to Williamsport. He played soccer with the boys from Curacao, and met former MLB player Jonathan Schoop, who also is from the island.

Ethan loved the Curacao team’s energy and passion for baseball. He made signs, and ran up and down the aisle getting the parents excited to keep cheering on the team. “Whether it was hanging out or watching them play, it was always so fun.”

As the Curacao team played deep into the 2023 tournament, Ethan’s signs and cheers led the fans in the stands.

Parents, grandparents, and government officials recognized Ethan’s passion for the game and for the Curacao team. One of the ministers invited Ethan and his family to visit Curacao for the LL Caribbean Tournament this summer as his Guest of Honor.

As the trip got closer, Ethan’s Franklin Township team took its own deep run toward Williamsport.

For the first time since 2007, the Franklin Township 11-12 won districts in a tight championship game against their rivals Valley West. Ethan pitched a shutout and scored the only run in a 1-0 victory.

In the U.S., a Little League’s team has 5 steps to qualify for Williamsport: Districts, Sectionals, States, Regionals, and Williamsport after being selected to a local All Star team. However, in the Caribbean, each country has its own qualification tournament that sends its winner to one of the seven countries.

This summer, the Caribbean tournament was hosted by Curacao, where the host country is allowed two teams in the tournament bracket. It brought together teams from Curacao Pabao, Saint Maarten, Curacao Pariba, Dominican Republic, U.S. Virgin Islands, Bonaire, and Aruba. The winner of this week-long tournament earned a berth to Williamsport.

After FT lost its first game to Council Rock Newtown (2-5) in Sectionals, it went on to win against Stroudsburg 6-2.

Ethan led his team to its first-ever victory over Southern Lehigh in another shutout 2-0, marking the first time in Franklin Township’s history that its 11-12 team would earn a spot in the Section 6 Championship.

Ethan and three other members (Roman White, Carter Spotts, and Owen Moyer) from the FT team had won the 2021 and 2022 8-10 Districts, and been the 2023 11-12 District Finalist and Panther Valley Tournament Champions.

Seven of Ethan’s other FT teammates had won 1-2 District Championships in the past four years to give the team a competitive advantage, and mark them as the most successful FT team in league history.

Invited by the Curacao Tourism Board to attend the week-long tournament, Ethan’s trip was delayed because “my team [Franklin Township] was also competing for a spot in Williamsport but unfortunately lost in the sectional finals.”

In a hard-fought battle against Newtown, FT lost 4-1 to the team that would eventually represent the Mid-Atlantic Region in Williamsport.

Ethan left the next morning to arrive just before the Caribbean Region semifinal games, and was greeted by the Minister of Economics Ruisandro Cijintje where he was a part of the pregame ceremony and shook hands with the players of the two competing teams of Curacao Pariba and Aruba.

After that intense game which Aruba won 12-8, Ethan then spoke to the crowd and threw out the first pitch of the second semifinal game of Curacoa Pabao versus the Dominican Republic.

The second Curacao team from Pabao, with one member of the 2023 Little League Caribbean team, would also fall to the Dominican Republic in a score of 3-6.

Ethan met the Attorney General, Little League Vice President, and members of the Curacao Tourism Board, and was presented with a Caribbean Little League medal and two jerseys to cheer on the two Curacao teams.

The finals were set between Aruba (a sister island to Curacao) and the much taller players from the Dominican Republic, and the atmosphere was electric with horns, megaphones, drums, and a percussion line.

According to Ethan, the finals were “between the clear favorites, Dominican Republic, and the underdog team Aruba.

But, with an amazing turn of events, Aruba was able to put two runs across [the plate].”

With the dominant Aruba pitching, they were “able to hold 0 runs allowing Aruba to advance to the Little League World Series for the first time in 11 years.”

It was a tight game, with an eventual 2-0 win by the underdog Aruba.

Ethan celebrated with both teams after he presented the Minister of Sport, Mr. Sithree van Heydoorn, a Lego replica he had designed of the 2023 International Champion Curacao Pabao team.

Curacao’s culture offered everything – welcoming people who wanted to get to know Ethan’s family, passionate fans who loved baseball, swimming with dolphins at the Dolphin Academy, delicious food with local seafood catches, pristine beaches to snorkel in, crystal clear water to swim with turtles, an outback terrain to explore blowholes and caves, and history from the 1700s at Christoffel National Park.

Ethan and his family also attended U-turn Church “where my dad preached about staying humble through sports.

“I was able to come up on the stage and talk about a little bit how I got there [to Curacao].” We also went on “this amazing jeep tour all across the island. We went off terrain uphill, downhill, past windmills, in caves, [and] by blowholes. We also went snorkeling. We visited this old village, where it was an old slave house, and it was fascinating to learn how life was back then.”

From watching excellent Little League games to visiting the Curacao Tourism Board and “looking for unique and fun souvenirs.” Ethan’s story tells how “a little boy from a little town” was welcomed to Curacao to experience international baseball and the gracious and fun-loving Caribbean people.