The Lewisberry, Pennsylvania Little League team entered Sunday’s championship game outscoring opponents 277-23. And after dropping 10 runs on Japan (who was no-hit for six innings against Mexico on Saturday) in the first inning on Sunday, it appeared the boys from Red Land were on pace to do something similar in the Final.
When there were 29 total runs, seven home runs in the game and 30 combined hits, one would think Lewisberry played a big part in that. And they would be right, except Japan played a bigger part.
Two home runs from Shingo Tomita and shots from Yugo Aoki, Kengo Tomita and Masafuji Nishijima propelled the Japan offense to 18 runs, which would ultimately be more than enough thanks to the shutdown pitching of Nobuyuki Kawashima.
Kawashima entered the game in the bottom of the second, with his team trailing 10-9. But he gave up just one run over the final five innings to the tournament’s most potent offense, paving the way for the Japanese offense to take off and ultimately pull way. Kawashima threw 12 first-pitch strikes, striking out four batters and giving up just two hits and a walk.
Four Japan hitters had three or more hits, and 10 of Japan’s 13 hitters logged at least one hit. While Tomita hit the two home runs, Nishijima was the star at the plate, going 4-for-4 with six RBIs and finishing a triple shy of the cycle. Tomita, his twin brother Kengo, and Aoki each had multi-RBI games.
The championship marks Japan’s tenth championship as a nation, and also marks the fourth time in the last six years that the country has won the tournament.
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