Japan Wins Little League Crown
September 1, 2015
On Sunday, August 30, an all-star baseball team from Tokyo, Japan, won the Little League World Series by defeating a team from Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, 18-11. The teams combined for 7 home runs, and the 29 total runs were the most ever in the sport’s championship game. Japanese teams have won four of the last six Little League World Series, a competition played each year in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, among kids aged 11 to 13. The tournament, first played in 1947, includes 16 Little League teams from the United States and the rest of the world. Little League Baseball is the world’s largest organized youth-sports program with nearly 180,000 teams.
Tokyo’s Kitasuna Little Leaguers started the slugfest with two runs in the top of the first inning. Lewisberry’s Red Land Little League all-stars then exploded for a record 10 runs in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by 12 year-old Dylan Rodenhaber’s grand slam home run. Japan bounced back with seven runs in the second inning, five of which came on back-to-back-to-back homers by Yugo Aoki and twin brothers Kengo and Shingo Tomita. Four more runs in the third put Kitasuna up 13-10, and they never looked back. Japanese pitcher Nobuyuki Kawashima kept Red Land in check over the final five innings, recording the last out on a chopper to shortstop.
The Red Land Pennsylvanians defeated a team from Pearland, Texas, 3-2 to win the U.S. championship and advance to the World Series title game. Japan reached the final by defeating Mexico 1-0. The tournament’s 32 games drew a total of nearly 500,000 fans.