Jeff Young’s West Fargo, N.D., All-Stars won’t arrive in Cowlitz County until after 1 a.m. Thursday, via charter bus from Portland after spending much of the day in airports.

But you won’t hear Young or any of his players complaining to the Babe Ruth World Series travel agent.

“It’s a tough travel day,” said Young, whose squad captured the Midwest Plains Regional championship to earn a berth in the 13-15 World Series, which starts Thursday at David Story Field with a home-run derby, barbecue and opening ceremonies. The games begin Friday at noon.

“But,” he said with a laugh, “it’s like I told the kids. Any time you get to take an airplane to go play a baseball game, you’re doing something right.”

West Fargo has been doing plenty of things right recently.

When the boys from North Dakota open the tournament at 7:35 p.m. Friday against co-host Longview, it will mark the third straight World Series these same players have competed in. West Fargo went 1-3 in the 13-year-old Series in Logan County, Va., and 1-3 again as 14s last summer in Quincy, Mass.

“These kids have won state every year since they were 10-year-olds, except for this year,” said Young, whose club took second at state earlier this summer, but managed to get into regionals as the tourney host, where they went 5-1. “They’ve had great state and regional success, but we’ve run into some tough teams both years we’ve gotten (to the World Series).

“We know it’ll be tough again when we get to Longview,” he added, “but I think this team will come out ready to play.”

The World Series hasn’t even begun, but already West Fargo is a hands-down winner in one unofficial category: Greatest temperature disparity from the start of school ball in April to the end of August.

It’s not uncommon for baseball games to be played in sub-freezing temperatures, Young said.

“When these kids start playing baseball in the early spring, sure, it can be below 30 degrees sometimes,” he said. “We tell people we start playing baseball up here around April 1, but actually it’s around April 12. These kids have played 44 games this summer as a team, and that includes a tournament in Omaha where it was 99 degrees.”

Young is particularly proud of his team’s relatively low error total in those 44 games, and lists “consistent defense” as its primary strength.

“We’ve made 53 errors and averaged better than one double play per game,” he said. “You build that kind of defense by playing together for a while, and many of these kids have played together since they were 6 or 7. We’re a small community. We don’t get any new guys coming into town who throw 95 miles per hour.”

Young expects to have strong support when the team arrives in Longview. He said a group of about 75 parents, siblings and grandparents attended the previous World Series that West Fargo competed in.

“We travel well,” he said. “People are extremely excited to be coming to Longview. A lot of our kids love the outdoors, so they’ve been Googling some locations around the Columbia River area.”

West Fargo is led offensively by a quartet of .400-plus hitters: Chance Bitzer (25 extra-base hits), Andy Young (17), Tucker Bucholz (11) and Brock Evenson (10). Bitzer plays first base and pitches, Young is the shortstop, Bucholz catches and Evenson is an outfielder.

Tanner Dahl, a right-hander with a 10-1 record, is the ace of the pitching staff. Bitzer is 8-1 on the mound and Austin Horsager is 7-3.