Wayne National advances to New Jersey Section 1 Championship

Written by Kyle Stackpole, contributing writer

For the second game in a row, Washington Township played a thriller, although this one was of the high-scoring variety. To make matters worse, Township wasn’t able to pull off the late-game heroics.

Wayne National 10, Washington Township 8

Washington Township took a surprising 3-0 lead early in the game with Wayne National’s star pitcher Dominic Cancellieri on the mound. He exited the game early on with just 35 pitches keeping him available for the championship game.

Wayne National got on the board in the third, when Ari Field knocked in John Boscarino. After singles from Cancellieri and Field, things got even better for Wayne National. Steven DiPaolo hit a three-run bomb and Wayne National was on top 4-3. The kids from Wayne weren't done yet. Danny Murphy added a two-run shot of his own, giving Wayne National a 6-3 lead.

Washington Township stole one back in the bottom of the third to cut the lead to 6-4. In the top of the fourth, it was Cancellieri’s turn to join the home run parade. He hit a two-run shot that left the yard quicker than any I have seen in this tournament so far.

Washington Township was not going down without a fight. They mustered three hits and three runs in the bottom of the fourth to cut the deficit to just 8-7.

After a scoreless fifth, Wayne National received some much needed insurance. Hits by Boscarino, Cancellieri, and Field gave Wayne National two more runs and a three-run lead heading into the last inning. Washington Township threatened in the bottom half, but could only put one across, giving Wayne National the huge win.

Boscarino, Cancellieri, and Field were incredible for Wayne National. They were 8-for-9 with four runs batted in and five runs scored. With the win, Wayne National advances to the Sectional title game on Thursday. Washington Township is now forced to play tomorrow against Par-Troy East, who eliminated Somerset Hills in the late game.

On a side note, this was one of the best little league games I have seen. It was back and forth and full of drama. In addition, Dominic Cancellieri is a name to look out for down the road if Wayne National continues to advance. He is a star in the making.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Wayne National played without its third and fourth hitters tonight. Unknown reasons. Very impressive victory.

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Monumental News for Little League Insider

We've been doing so well right out of the gate this summer that we're really going to blow it out of the box. Starting Sunday July 21, we'll be LIVE on the radio for a one-hour show.

We'll be broadcasting each Sunday through the Little League World Series championship game from 1pm-2pm Eastern Time. The show will be live at Emmett's Castle in Pearl River, NY and can be heard on WFAS 1230AM News/Talk radio out of Westchester, NY.

It will be a nationally focused show with a lean towards the East coast because that's what we know the best. Once the world series hits, we'll be all national, all the time.

You can listen LIVE online HERE and HERE. If you have the iHeart Radio app, you can listen there as well. The show will also be recorded for download right here on the Little League Insider Blog.

If you have ideas for the show, don't hesitate to let us know. You can contact us nearly 1000 ways now. The show has the potential for a lot of interactivity. We will have live guests, phone interviews, and you will be able to call-in with questions, comments, and updates from your area of the country. I'll have that number for you soon.

It's a very exciting time. This is going to be a great six weeks of baseball.

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Monday's Little League Roundup (July 15, 2013)

We hit some of the Northwest, New England, Midwest, and Europe today on our road trip around the Little League world. I personally went out to my home section's winners' bracket final today in New York Section 4. Pearl River Little League continued to dominate its opponents after a bit of a slow start against Fishkill. Sean Flaherty proved to me once again that he's an elite hitter in this age group with his fifth home run in four games and a HUGE three-run hit. He's for real. I'm not sure Pearl River has the pitching to bring home a state championship this year, but they certainly hit up and down the order. They bunt the heck out of the ball too. Away we go.........

New Hampshire

The state finals are set in New Hampshire. Salem won a tough District 1 with a walk-off home run from John Olivo to pull out a 9-7 victory in the “if” game. Bedford forced the “if” game over the weekend with a 19-1 thrashing of Salem.

Salem will face Rye LL from District 2 in the best-of-three state finals. Rye romped through its district unbeaten and won the state championship as 10-year olds two years ago. Expect to see a lot of long balls.

Germany

KMC Little League of Rammstein AFB is looking to get back to Williamsport in the newly created Europe & Africa region. KMC is 3-0 so far with a couple of thrashings in its last two games. The American boys from Germany have a lot of pop in their bats.

Nebraska

Kearney went all the way to the Little League World Series last year and now they’ve caught the bug. Kearney waltzed into the state tournament with big victories over its district foes. Kearney returns at least two players with LLWS experience as well as a coach. That’s important when/if they reach the regionals again.

Rhode Island

The Rhode Island state tournament is always one of the toughest in the country. All four districts are strong and they love their baseball. Perennial-power Lincoln is back in the state tourney after a few years and they dominated too. Johnston should come out of District 1 and they look very strong. Coventry upended the 11-year old state champions in their district.

Washington

Washington is into its winners bracket semifinals right now and quite frankly, I don’t know the teams that are there. None of them have a long term pedigree in the state. There’s no Kents, Redmond’s, Richland’s, etc… It’ll be interesting. West Seattle had the biggest blowout victory, but also had a bye.

Oregon

I don’t have any news out of Oregon yet, but I had to go on one of my scheduling rants. I’ve always hated single elimination at every level. It’s atrocious, especially after pool play. Well, Oregon decided to find out who the best team in the state is this year with a single elimination tournament of nine teams. They all play like 3-4 pool play seeding games that mean nothing, then play single elimination from there on out. It is completely mind-boggling to me.

Vermont
South Burlington continued its quest towards a repeat trip to Bristol CT for the New England regional. The boys from Burlington routed everyone in their district including a 14-1 victory in the final. They have approximately 5-6 players back from last year’s run in the regional.

Delaware

The big news in Delaware today is that Newark National is looking great again. National has won back-to-back state championships and then went 7-1 in pool play at the Mid-Atlantic regional in those years. A 1-0 loss to Par-Troy East NJ kept them from Williamsport last year. Canal from Wilmington was supposed to be the state favorite, but Newark put a hurting on them tonight with a 10-2 victory behind Nate Hardcastle, the lone returner from last year’s 12-year old team. Watch out for the Nats.

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Little League Road Trip: Sunday July 14, 2013

Written by John Malone, editor

New Jersey

I made my way to neighboring New Jersey on Sunday four games in the Section 1 and Section 3 tournaments (read full recaps of the NJ Section 1 games HERE). Wayne National showcased one of the top pitchers/athletes I’ve seen in the early going this year in Dominic Cancellieri. I’m not going to say he’s Par-Troy East’s Emil Matti (LINK) yet, but he’s that type of player. Wayne’s opponent, Lackawanna, was very solid, and had good size throughout their lineup. They had the short end of the stick pitching-wise to start the tournament, but definitely can make a run.

Par-Troy East, the 2013 edition, isn’t the same team as last year’s Mid-Atlantic champions…obviously. They’re still a team worthy of the state tournament and could definitely win the Section 1 bracket. They have a tough matchup with Washington Township on Monday. Tyler Grieco is like the hulk at and behind the plate.

Next, I went to the shore to see Section 3 play and saw the potential New Jersey state champions, Nottingham. One of the more storied Little Leagues in the entire East region, Nottingham looks like it has all the pieces. They have three or four great to good arms, big bats throughout the lineup, and solid defense. They have “the look.” They pounded a scrappy Eatontown team 10-1 on Sunday night. Eatontown has an excellent ace pitcher who exited the game with 49 pitches in the third inning trailing just 1-0. After his departure, Nottingham smoked five straight hits to take a 7-0 lead.

Utah

Believe it or not, we have our first state champion already. Dixie Little League of Saint George, UT annihilated the competition to win its first state championship since 1997. Dixie made a great run in the regional that year. We’ll have a post all about Dixie this week.

Connecticut

Watch out New England region, there’s potential for MAJOR crowds at the regional tournament this year. Edgewood Little League of Bristol, Connecticut dominated the District 5 championship and advances to the Section 1 tournament this week in CT. If Edgewood can navigate its way to a state championship, we could see record crowds every night in August.

New York

Sectionals have kicked off throughout the state. On Long Island, Massapequa Coast continues to dominate pool play with a 3-0 record, outscoring opponents 28-1. They’re the lone unbeaten team on the island now. In New York City, Peter Stuyvesant from the east side of Manhattan faces perennial-power South Shore American of Staten Island in the winners’ bracket final. Pearl River is rolling through its section in the northern suburbs and Burnt Hills and Saratoga American are on a collision course in the capital region. In Central New York, Horseheads continues to rout opponents. After beating District 6 foes 100-2 over six games, Horseheads opened the Section 2 tournament with an 11-1 victory.

Pennsylvania

There’s been some dominance early on in the home of the Little League World Series. Keystone continues to roll with another barrage of home runs. West Point, perennially challenger, has two big victories, and DuBois hit seven home runs today in a 21-1 victory. Lionville has also beat up its opponents in its respective sectional tournament. The state finals will be a dandy in PA.

Southern California

The record for most home runs on Sunday most likely goes to Santa Maria Southside. In SoCal’s Section 1 tournament, SMS hit ten bombs including a walk-off to advance to the championship game in the winners’ bracket with an 18-16 victory in seven innings over Goletta Valley South. Let’s hope they have pitching available.

Sherman Oaks has competed well as 10-year olds and 11-year olds and even took home a state championship. Both times it faced Burbank in the Section 2 finals. Today they met in the second round of the tournament and it was a barn burner. Sherman Oaks came away with an 11-5 victory behind three home runs from Jake Robbins. It was a back-and-forth affair for five innings before SOLL took a 6-5 lead and opened the game up late.

Northern California

Belmont Redwood Shores made a statement over always tough San Ramon in its sectional opener and then continued that trend with a mercy-rule victory to advance to the title game. I still have my eyes on Santa Cruz American who face off with former district foes, Gilroy, on Monday.

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New Jersey Section 1 Tournament Recaps

By Kyle Stackpole, contributing writer

Sunday marked the start of the Sectional Tournaments in New Jersey. University of Maryland-bound Kyle Stackpole went out to cover the Section 1 Tournament in Dumont today to see what New Jersey Little Leaguers had to offer. Here’s his first post as a contributing writer for Little League Insider.

Par Troy East 10, Somerset Hills 0 (F/5)

In the first game of the day, Par-Troy East was matched up against Somerset Hills. Par-Troy had Noah Lustig, their ace, on the mound while Somerset Hills went with Jeff Bailey.

The scoring started in the bottom of the second when Par-Troy’s  Alex Angulo and Angelo Cascio walked to start off the innin. Will Kauffman came in to try and stop the early bleeding for Somerset Hill but PTE kept the pressure up. Par-Troy scored its first two runs on a passed ball and a double steal attempt. Then, Andrew Stulec drove in the third run with an RBI-single. By the time the inning had ended, Par Troy East had a 4-0 lead.

Par-Troy added another in the fourth to make it 5-0, but the game was still well within reach. However, Somserset Hills could not get their bats going. They mustered only two hits against a combination of Noah Lustig (35 pitches), Ollie Boch (35 pitches), and Danny Rodriguez (13 pitches).

Par-Troy made a statement in the fifth inning that showed how explosive this team could be. After DePietrio and Stulec brought home two more runs on back-to-back hits, power-hitter Tyler Grieco came to the plate. Grieco was potentially fooled on the pitch, but, because of his strength, the ball carried all the way over the right field fence for a two-run home run, giving Par-Troy a 9-0 lead. Next to the plate was clean-up hitter Danny Rodriguez. He ended the game early by scolding a line-drive home run over the right center field fence. The 10-run mercy rule came into effect and the game was over.

With the win, Par-Troy will play Washington Township in the winners’ bracket on Monday at 6 p.m. Somerset Hills falls into the losers bracket and will play Monday at 8:15 p.m. against Lackawanna.

Wayne National 7, Lackawanna 2

With Lackawanna’s top two pitchers unavailable for the opening game of the Sectional, it was hard seeing them pulling this one out.

They began the game with Ryan Kaiser, who pitched a solid two innings. The only run he surrendered came on a double play ball that was overthrown.

Wayne National did most of its damage in the fourth inning with. After scoring their first run on a bases loaded walk, Jack Feit singled home two and Wayne National had a 4-0 lead. The game was broken open later in the inning with a huge three-run blast by Ari Field. The inning had finally ended, but not before Wayne National had a comfortable 7-0 cushion.

Lackawanna managed to put two across in the top of the fifth, but never seriously threatened to make it a game. Wayne National’s combination of Dominic Cancellieri and Jared Strus shut out Lackawanna while only giving up six hits, three of those coming from Chase Cramer.

The middle of Wayne National’s order definitely got the job done on Sunday. The 3-4-5 hitters (Jared Strus, Jack Feit, and Ari Field) were 3-for-4 with six runs batted in. Look for these hitters to carry Wayne National through the tournament.

With the win, Wayne National moves on to the winners’ bracket final. Lackawanna will play an elimination game against Somerset Hills tomorrow.

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Early Teams To Watch Around The Country

Throughout most of the big states in the country, it’s sectional week. Everyone is a district champion from here on out. Without seeing the teams in person it’s nearly impossible to predict who is strong based on score-watching, but past history of leagues, districts, sections, etc is a decent predictor. Success as 10-year olds and 11-years olds helps too. Based on what we’ve seen so far, here’s some notes on the big surprises and disappointments around the country.

Biggest Surprise

Pennsylvania: Keystone Little League. The boys from Lock Haven were the darlings of the Little League World Series in 2011, and their younger compatriots are trying to equal the feat. Keystone didn’t win the district championship when they were 10 years old and they didn’t win the district championship when they were 11 years old. In fact, Loyalsock won the state title from Keystone’s district last year. So what has Keystone accomplished thus far?

Keystone has wins of 26-0, 21-1, 27-1, 14-1, and 14-3. That final game was over Loyalsock. They have yet to play a 6-inning game. In five games, they have 25 home runs. Definitely a team to watch.

Biggest Disappointment

Tennessee: Goodlettsville Little League. The league that made it all the way to the Promised Land last season was primed for another big run. Goodlettsville has come out of nowhere to become a Little League power with dominant champions at every level now, but not so fast. South Nashville Little League had something to say about it and beat Goodlettsville twice to win the district title.

Teams to Watch

New England: One of the smaller regions in terms of size and colder regions in terms of climate, New England actually packs a good punch in baseball and is tough to read this early. South Burlington Vermont almost pulled off one of the more dramatic upsets in regional history last year and they return 5-6 players from that team. They won’t be a favorite if they get to the regional, but expect them to get there.

Others: North Andover East MA, Lincoln RI, Westport CT, Saco ME, and Rye NH.

Mid-Atlantic: There are more leagues in the Mid-Atlantic region than any other region in the country. It’s extremely hard to get out of certain states, such as New Jersey. The best teams don’t win the region most years. Right now, Nottingham NJ looks like a good bet to make a run. One of the most storied programs in the East, Nottingham reached the LLWS back in 1992. They rolled easily through a tough district and have a good schedule for the sections. If they escape New Jersey, watch out.

Others: Massapequa Coast NY, West Point PA, Berlin MD, Capitol City DC, and Canal DE.

Southeast: The Southeast has become the land of Warner Robins GA. The league is monstrous. People move there to play baseball and they love their sports. WRALL challenges for regional titles year after year out of Georgia now. It's amazing to someone from the northeast to see a league threaten for a regional title every single year. We're used to more depth up here, I guess. Either way though, Georgia Little League is certainly on a high right now. Plant City FL might be a team to watch early on. They won the state title a year ago and Florida is always strong.

Southwest: Texas and Louisiana are the powers in this region and both states have its share of great programs. Watch for the Lafayettes and South Lake Charles’ from Louisiana and in Texas watch for Midland Northern in the West and Pearland or Sweeny in the East.

West: Southern California is always packed with talent. The winner is a LLWS favorite right off the bat. The team on the tip of everyone’s tongues for right now is Sherman Oaks. There’s a long way to go though. In Northern California, Santa Cruz’s name has popped up with some big time pitching, MLB pedigrees, and big bats.

The Northwest, Great Lakes, and Midwest don’t have a ton of states with sectionals, so their district tournaments are barely finished. It’s still way too early to even pretend to have teams to watch in these regions currently. We’ll get back to them later on.

We’ll have tons of updates early on from the East, especially New York and New Jersey in the next week. We’d love to get contributors from other regions as well.

Do you have blog ideas and want me to write about them? Do you want to contribute content to the blog yourself? If so, shoot me an email at section1guycom@aol.com.

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Musashi Fuchu wins Japan, Heads to Williamsport

EDITORS NOTE: Fumio Ishii, our Japanese Little League correspondent, covered the Japanese Little League Tournament for us this week and did an amazing job bringing words and images to us from games that we never get to hear about. Here’s his recap of the national championship game and a scouting report on Musashi Fuchu, the team which will represent Japan in Williamsport, Pennsylvania for the Little League World Series.



Just got back from the Japanese Little League Tournament (Zavas Cup) and as I predicted, Musashi Fuchu Little League will be taking their third trip to Williamsport and gunning for their second Little League World Series title since 2003. Please bear with me as all the Japanese Little League programs are in Japanese so I might get the names wrong because there are so many ways to pronounce the characters.

Musashi Fuchu has been known for their potent offense in the past. The first four hitters in their lineup include right fielder Kazuteru Ishida (石田和輝), shortstop Sho Miyao (宮尾将), third baseman Shunpei Takagi (高木俊平), and left fielder Takuma Gomi (五味卓馬). From the Zavas Cup tournament, most of the runs were scored by these top four players, but they also have good hitters in the bottom of the order too.

On defense, there are four players returning from last year’s Musashi Fuchu team which was the Tokyo runner up to the 2012 Little League World Series Champions Kitasuna Little League. They are Miyao, Gomi, second baseman Dai Okada (岡田大), and first baseman Kensuke Tsuchida (土田健輔). Their defense is very solid. Miyao looked like Ozzie Smith at times, he has very good range.

Like Kitasuna last year, they do have a big team, but their big boys are mostly on the bench. I can’t trust the measurements from the Little League program, because last year, they listed Kotaro Kiyomiya as 5-foot-9 and 176 pounds. I stood next to him and I’m 5-foot-11 and weigh over 200 pounds. Kiyomiya is bigger than me, so I knew his measurements had to be wrong unless I really shrank. It was ESPN who got his measurement right of 6-foot-1 and over 200 pounds. Fuchu has six players over 5-foot-6. The biggest player is (TKO) Ryutaro Takeo (竹尾竜太朗).  I never stood next to him, like I did with Kiyomiya, but I know he weighs more than 200 pounds and is 5-foot-9. He is a backup catcher and a closer. He throws in the low to mid 70’s. Then, there is another player, Ryu Nagano (永野龍李), who is around 6-feet, 140 pounds. I see him being used as a middle reliever, but he’s mostly on the bench. Keita Saito (齊藤恵太) is around 5-foot-8,  150 pounds and used as backup left fielder and middle reliever. Shinya Nishino (西野清也) looks like their starting left handed pitcher who is 5-foot-10, 130 pounds. I don’t see him playing other positions besides pitcher. Toru Kobayashi is 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds and he was a middle reliever.

 The pitching is kind of erratic. When I mean erratic, I mean wild. It seems like their manager Masumi Ohmae wanted his big kids to pitch regardless of control. Their ace seems to be Shinya Nishino who is a south paw, he seems to throw in the high 60’s to low 70’s, but he has control problems and easily rattled when someone hits the long ball off him. Their other pitcher is their leadoff hitter Kazuteru Ishida. He seems to throw in the low 70’s too, but also has control problems. Then they have Saito who has heat, but control problems as well as middle reliever Nagano. He has heat, but control problems too. TKO is their closer, but I know that Ohmae does not want to use him for more than an inning. He closed a bases loaded no out jam in the 1st round of the tournament. He seems to have a pretty good velocity too.

Overall, this is no Kitasuna of last year. They are always known for their hitting, but I don’t think they are as good as the team in 2003 when Yutaro Tanaka caused havoc with his bat and on the mound to win the Little League World Series. This reminds me much more like the 2000 team which got beaten in the International Finals against Venezuela. I think they will be playing in the Little League World Series Finals, because their offense is better than the 2000 team and compares well against the 2003 team. Maybe the Japanese hitters were good this year which made the pitching staff look bad. I’m not sure. This team is beatable compared to last year’s Kitasuna team but that was the best team I’ve ever witnessed.

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Japan's National Little League Tournament

Let me introduce myself, my name is Fumio Ishii. I was born and raised in the U.S., and got my BA from University of Southern California. I have lived in Tokyo for over 12 years, working either as a Broadcast Engineer or IT Engineer. 

I've been following Japanese Little League ever since Taiwan got caught red-handed by Japan for cheating in 1997. There is an interesting book about the Taiwanese Little League Dynasty called, “The Game of Isolation” and you can buy it at Amazon.com. I read the book and understood why Taiwan would go through all this trouble to win the Little League World Series. Taiwan (Republic of China) were in a Civil War with mainland China (People’s Republic of China). The Republic of China used the Little League World Series to put their country on the map. Read that book and you will understand why Taiwan went that far to establish a Little League dynasty. In order for them to play in Williamsport, they had to defeat Japan. If they played by the rules, it would be very difficult for Taiwan to defeat Japan consistently, so they had to create an all-national team by using illegal players to  represent the Far East. Little League only allowed 1 team from Asia to represent the Far East during that time. Now the new setting is different. If a Japanese team wins their national tournament, they automatically represent as Japan in the LLWS.

What you hear on ESPN is semi-true about Japanese Little League. Little League baseball is very unpopular in Japan. They take the back seat to high school baseball. In the US, every kid dreams of playing in Lamade Stadium, a field built specifically for Little League. In Japan, they have to share a high school stadium (SEE PHOTO ABOVE).

Last year, when Kitasuna Little League won the Japanese Tournament, the final which was supposed to be played in Edogawa High School Stadium was rained out. So the makeup game was held in a dumpy place near Kasai Rinkai Koen in the middle of nowhere. Even worse, there were no bleachers to sit in so it was very uncomfortable to watch the game. They couldn’t have the makeup game held in Edogawa High School Stadium, because they high school tournament started, and Little League had to take a backseat to high school baseball.

If only Japan had a dedicated stadium built for Little League, like San Bernadino for the Western Regional, it would be much more comfortable to watch the game and enjoyable for the kids to play in. Little League baseball is also not televised on public TV, because the general public doesn't care. Even the Little League World Series is not televised live. Japan has one of the worst ESPN networks in the world. It’s more of an informercial than a sports channel. So the only televised game they would see are reruns.

It is very difficult to get Little League results in Japan, because Japanese newspapers don’t pay any attention to Little League baseball. Unpage.org also has difficult time getting real time results for the Japanese Little League Tournament.

My 1st visit to the Japanese Little League tournament was back in 2008. I met this other American ex-Pat who checked out the game and we had a conversation about the tournament. He complained that this recreational park was very difficult to watch the tournament, because the Edogawa Stadium were being used for high school baseball. After he left, because he felt too uncomfortable to watch the game, this Japanese Little League representative was stunned to see a foreigner like myself to watch the All-Japan Little League tournament. He asked me, “How did you find this place?” I replied, “I searched and searched until I finally found some info on where Little League baseball tournament was held!” He didn't realize how popular Little League baseball is in the U.S., because in Japan, they have to take the back seat to high school baseball.

I was able to get a lot of information from this Japanese representative, and followed Little League baseball in Japan ever since. 

I can give you a brief history of the Little League Tournament in Japan. Tokyo area has won more national tournaments than any other prefecture in Japan. Out of the eight Little League World Series championships won by Japan, six were won by Tokyo teams.

Here are the following results of all the LLWS championships won by Japan:

1967 West Tokyo Little League (Tokyo)
1968 Wakayama Little League (Osaka)
1976 Chofu Little League (Tokyo)
1999 Hirakata Little League (Osaka) 
2001 Kitasuna Little League (Tokyo)
2003 Musashi Fuchu Little League (Tokyo)
2010 Edogawa-Minami Little League (Tokyo)
2012 Kitasuna Little League (Tokyo)

In the Tokyo tournament, it is pretty much dominated by the following 4 Little League teams:

Kitasuna Little League
Edogawa Little League
Musashi Fuchu Little League
Chofu Little League

For the past 20 years, one of those teams listed above represented Tokyo for the National tournament.

This year, the Musashi Fuchu Little League represents the Tokyo Little League Champs and Chofu Little League represents the runner-up.

Musashi Fuchu should be the favorite to win the Japanese National Little League Tournament. They have four players who return last year team which represented the Tokyo runner up to Kitasuna. They have Little League Tournament experience.

Here are the results for the games of June 29th:

Game 1: Musashi Fuchu 6-3 over Hiroshima Saiki
Game 2: Kishiwada (Osaka) 8-0 over Sapporo Shiroishi
Game 3: Owari Ichinomiya 6-0 over Kumamoto Chuo
Game 4: Sendai Aoba 2-0 over Omiya
Game 5: Yokohama Aoba 9-2 over Hamamatsu Minami
Game 6: Chofu (Tokyo) 3-2 over Ehime Tobu
Game 7: Miyagino 6-2 over Matsudo (Chiba)
Game 8: Ueda Minami 16-5 over Takarazuka
Game 9: Musashi Fuchu 11-1 over Kishiwada (Osaka)

Musashi Fuchu are a big team, but their biggest players are bench players which I find extremely odd. They have four players over 5-foot-7. Their biggest player is 5-foot-10 and over 200 pounds. He’s not as big as Kotaro Kiyomiya from last years Kitasuna team, but he’s still a big kid. He isn't a starter, however. He is their closer, they call him TKO. This Musashi Fuchu team is not as good as the Kitasuna team which dominated the LLWS tournament last year. They do have a solid offense and very impressive defense. I would say their defense is better than Kitasuna, but their offense and pitching isn't as good. They might be as good as the 2003 Musashi Fuchu team which won it all that year.

Blog post written by: Fumio Ishii

Editor's Note: Thanks to Fumio for the great details and look into the Japanese tournament. It's a prospective we don't see often here in the states.

Welcome to the 2013 Road to Williamsport

Hello everyone to another year of the Little League International Tournament. We're really going to blow it out of the box this year. We're going to have more contributors to the blog, so I don't have the brunt of the writing.

We have representatives from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Washington D.C in the states. We'll see if anyone wants to contribute from outside the region as well. Our first guest entry is going to be written all the way from Japan though. It's extremely insightful into what it takes to get through the Japanese National Tournament on the way to Williamsport, Pennsylvania for the Little League World Series.

If you'd like to be a contributor with any recaps, previews, history, general thoughts, or anything really... just email me: Section1GuyCom@aol.com.


Check back daily. Thanks!


-John Malone, blog creator

2012 Little League East Region: Day 7

Bedford (NH) 2, Wellesley South (MA) 0

What a great performance on the mound from Bedford's Grant Lavigne. The player who was compared to Barry Bonds before the tournament began looked more like Greg Maddux today. Lavigne tossed a complete game shutout with just one strikeout. Almost every out came via the ground ball. It was dominant without being overpowering. Fun stuff to watch. Billy Seidl was great for Massachusetts but kept getting into deep counts and he didn't last too long on the hill. Offensively, Wellesley put the ball in play, but great pitching and some tough luck equals a lot of balls hit right at people.

Bedford will have Tim Saltzman and Connor Collins available in the final. Saltzman hasn't been as effective in Bristol as he was in New Hampshire, but he might be the perfect recipe for Connecticut. Fairfield has been an offensive juggernaut most of the summer, but little pitchers that mix it up well tend to give them trouble. I think its pitch selection that causes some of the problem. We'll see in the final.

Fairfield American (CT) 4, South Burlington (VT) 3 (F/8)

I mentioned South Burlington's upset of Yalesville back in 2001. They nearly pulled off the same caliber of upset 11 years later. Fairfield was completely on the ropes from the fifth inning on and never looked comfortable all game long. Unshakable Ryan Meury wasn't as sharp as usual on the mound despite not giving up an earned run and striking out eight batters in 4.1 innings if that makes any sense.

With the game so close early on, Fairfield stuck with Meury instead of saving him for the championship game. With the game heading to extra innings, the ineligibility of Matty Clarkin loomed a bit larger.

Vermont's Ethan Klesch was superb on the mound and kept his group of "David's" in the game. He pitched eight great innings against Connecticut in this tournament. He had one bad inning in pool play. Otherwise, he was mystifying. Biagio Paoletta walked five times which has to be some kind of record. While it looked like Vermont was around the plate against him, five walks seems like they wanted no part of the super slugger. Will Lucas eventually came through with the game-winning hit to give the entire Nutmeg State a huge sigh of relief.

Predictions & Previews

#3 Collier Township (PA) vs. #2 Par-Troy East (PA)

Both teams are coming off big wins at the end of pool play, but New Jersey is in the driver's seat pitching-wise. Collier's Nick Serafino should get the start and he's been great. He's a dynamite number two pitcher (Zach Rohaley is unavailable after tossing semifinal-clinching victory against New York). For New Jersey, Emil Matti and Bener Uygen are both available. There's a good chance you see both of them. All of the Jersey relief pitching is available as well.

Serafino, Rohaley, Hess, and company are starting to come around with their bats late in games and they'll need that again against a talented New Jersey team. Anthony Scannelli has been PTE's hottest hitter along with Matti. If Uygen and one other bat step up... Jersey looks good too.

Prediction: New Jersey 5, Pennsylvania 4

#4 West Salisbury (MD) vs. #1 Newark National (DE)

Maryland is coming off two straight losses that they gave away late while setting up their pitching for today. Grason Winterbottom is potentially unavailable, so Matt Chrystostome will be relied on heavily to get the job done. Delaware has been on fire, but will be without star pitcher, Clayton Hansen. The pitching strength doesn't end there though. Joe Silan, Drew Emory, and Matt Theodorakis are all available and all effective. Silan took the lone loss of the tournament against this same Maryland team, however.

No matter who pitches for Delaware though, it shouldn't matter. Unfortunately for Maryland, Winterbottom is the only player really swinging a great bat. He single-handedly beat Delaware last time and I doubt Newark National will allow that to happen again. Newark lost in the semifinals last season by a lone run. This time they win it a little more comfortably.

Prediction: Delaware 6, Maryland 2