WILLIAMSPORT — Sixteen teams gathered for the Little League World Series, some from thousands of miles away, but all feeling right at home.

“It’s beyond exciting to be here, said Sammamish, Wash., assistant coach Matt Fitzgibbons. “We’ve kind of talked about it among the coaches and we were calling it the Augusta National of baseball. Everything is first class. The people are first class. The facilities are first class. It’s exceeded our wildest expectations.”

Newark, Del., pitcher Nate Hardcastle, 12, called it “probably the most exciting thing to happen to me so far in my life.”

The 67th World Series begins in Thursday, when Panama will face Puerto Rico at 1 p.m.

Other games are Corpus Christi, Texas, vs. Sammamish, Australia vs. Mexico and South Nashville, Tenn., vs. Westport, Conn. The final is Aug. 25.

While that worldwide exposure might be enough to make the average 12-year-old a bit nervous, coach Tim Rogers of Westport, Conn., believes his squad that won 17 straight games to qualify can handle it.

“They’ve played a lot of baseball the last four years in travel tournaments,” Rogers said. “They’ve been on big stages before.”

A team from the Czech Republic is making its first appearance in Williamsport, and coach Pavel Chadim praised Little League Baseball officials for their commitment to the European Baseball Association.

“The last six years the level of baseball in Czech Republic, Germany, Italy has grown up unbelievably,” Chadim said.