SPORTS
September 18, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Asians in American sports w Asian Americans in world sports
Tokyo Kitasuna sweeps to
Little League World Series victory again
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
A
sian teams have done very well at
the Little League World Series
(LLWS): South Korea, Chinese
Taipei, and Japan have 31 championships
combined. That’s almost as many as the 34
won by teams from the United States, and
Asian teams are closing the gap quickly.
Going into this year’s tournament, Asian
teams had won five of the past seven
LLWS title games, and Tokyo teams
represent four of those victories. This year,
another Tokyo team swept to victory
virtually unchallenged.
Of the four Tokyo LLWS championships
since 2012, two were from Tokyo Kitasuna
Little League. Each time, they not only
won the title, but also went undefeated. In
2012, their 12-2 finals victory against
Goodlettsville, Tennessee capped a
tournament in which they outscored their
opponents 35-5.
In 2015, Tokyo Kitasuna had a tougher
time of it, outscoring the opposition by just
34-21. Their international final was a
thrilling 1-0 victory over Mexico, while the
final was an 18-11 slugfest against
Lewisberry, Pennsylvania.
This year, Tokyo Kitasuna eclipsed even
the club’s dominant 2012 performance,
beginning with the opening game against
Australia. Japan’s team captain, Keitaro
Miyahara, smacked a leadoff double, later
scoring when Seiya Arai lashed a sharp
grounder into right field.
That’s the only run Japan pushed across
that inning, but they scored a run in each
of the next three innings and four more in
the fifth inning. Every run after the first
proved unnecessary, however, since
Japan’s four pitchers held Australia to just
two hits and three walks while fanning 10
batters. Tokyo Kitasuna cruised to an easy
8-0 victory.
Their next game, against the South
Korean team, proved to be Japan’s only
challenge, partly because it was the only
game in their first four in which they
allowed a run. That run came in the top of
the first, when pitcher Riku Goto
surrendered back-to-back singles, then
walked the bases loaded. The runner on
third, Jin-won Shin, scored on a pass ball,
but Goto didn’t allow any more damage.
Tokyo Kitasuna struck back in their half
of the first inning, when left fielder Ryota
Ono and right fielder Yuya Nakajima hit
back-to-back singles in a two-out rally that
gave Japan the lead. Goto settled down,
never allowing more than one hit in an
inning and pitching a complete game.
Japan added two more runs in the third,
but it was icing on the cake, as they won
their closest game of the tournament with
a 4-1 score.
By contrast, the game against Canada
was Japan’s easiest. The team from
British Columbia won its first two games,
but they were no match for the team from
Tokyo Kitasuna.
After putting down Canada in order in
the top of the first, Japan pushed across
two runs in its half of the frame on a double
from first baseman Natsuki Yajima and a
single from Ono. Tokyo cracked the game
open with a four-run third and added three
more in the fourth. The game ended in the
bottom of the fifth when a Ryusei Fujiwara
double made the score 10-0, activating
Little League’s 10-run rule.
GRASS-FED
BEEF FOR SALE
It’s not always easy to manage
diabetes, but I keep trying by
taking it one day at a time.
For more information, please
call 1-800-860-8747 or
visit www.ndep.nih.gov.
Call (503) 980-5900 for details
GRASS-FED & GRASS-FINISHED BEEF
Farm-raised in Newberg, Oregon
Beef available as:
q Quarter cow q Half cow q Whole cow
Beef is processed by a Portland butcher.
Pickup available September at N.E. Sandy Blvd. location.
Read The Asian Reporter online at <www.asianreporter.com>!
Canada lost to Mexico the next day,
allowing the team from Reynosa to face
Japan in the international final. Mexico
had dropped its opening game against
Venezuela, but it followed the loss up with
four straight wins and a 28-2 scoring
margin.
But Mexico had not faced a team like
Japan.
Tokyo Kitasuna crushed Mexico’s
momentum with its very first batter, as
Miyahara knocked a leadoff homer. Tokyo
then loaded the bases on a walk, a dropped
third strike, and an error. Nakajima drove
in two with a single, and Arai later scored
on a wild pitch. Japan had scored four runs
with only two hits.
Mexico settled down after that, but it
was already too late. Japan’s starting
pitcher, Goto, held Mexico to four hits,
walking one and striking out 13. Japan
TOKYO TRIUMPHS. Of the four Tokyo Little
League World Series (LLWS) championships since
2012, two were from Tokyo Kitasuna Little League.
Each time, they not only won the title, but also went
undefeated. Pictured are Tokyo Kitasuna players
Tsubasa Tomii (top photo) and Rei Ichisawa (bottom
photo), who played in the 2017 LLWS championship
game held last month in South Williamsport, Pennsyl-
vania. Japan won the game with a score of 12-2.
(AP Photos/Matt Slocum)
scored again in the fifth for a 5-0 win and a
berth in the final game.
Japan’s easy path to the LLWS finals
contrasted sharply with its championship
opponent from Lufkin, Texas. The
Southwest U.S. team won its first two
games before dropping a 2-1 squeaker to
Greenville, North Carolina. Texas got
another chance against Greenville after
winning the consolation bracket, coming
out on top, 6-5, in the rematch.
The Southwest team, with a 4-1 record
and a 32-15 scoring differential, looked
like it would have no chance against
undefeated Japan and its 27-1 scoring
advantage. But Texas struck first, scoring
twice in the first inning and putting Japan
two runs behind for the first time in the
tournament. Chandler Spencer led the
game off with a home run on Tsubasa
Tomii’s very first pitch, and Hunter
Ditsworth added his own solo shot two
hitters later.
Another team manager might have
pulled his starting pitcher, but Tokyo
manager Junnji Hidaka stuck with Tomii,
and for good reason. Tomii allowed only
one more hit, and those two runs were all
he surrendered. And by the time Texas got
that third hit, Japan had scored three
times in the second inning and four times
in the fourth.
Then Tokyo Kitasuna put the game
away. Leading 7-2 in the fifth, they scored
five more runs to invoke the 10-run rule
and win the game with a 12-2 score. Since
1996, when Taiwan defeated Rhode Island
13-3, only two other teams have won the
LLWS final via the 10-run rule. Both
teams were from Tokyo Kitasuna — in
2012 and now in 2017.
When next year’s LLWS rolls around,
there will be the usual excitement of
qualifying tournaments around the world.
But when those teams convene once again
in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the odds
will favor an Asian team coming out on top.
And among Asian teams, all eyes will be on
the team from Tokyo Kitasuna to see if
they can continue their club’s incredible
legacy.
Ai Weiwei puts human face on migrant crisis in Human Flow
Continued from page 4
Sometimes you have to use
drones to capture this kind
of mass of meaningless
humans, like ants.”
Ai said he wanted to
avoid traditional movie
structures
such
as
following one character
along their journey.
“I wanted the film to be
chaotic, in a way,” he said.
The film’s high-profile
slot at Venice, where it’s
the only documentary in
the main competition,
should help it reach a broad
audience, as should a
release by Amazon in the
U.S. this fall.
Ai
said
he
hoped
politicians would see the
film, and resolve “not to
just avoid the situation, not
just to build borders, not
just to say ‘them’ and ‘us,’
but rather to see we are all
SPiLt ink Gallery
Acrylic
Colour Pencil
Graphite
Oil
Pen & Ink
Watercolour
Pets w Holidays w Special Occasions w Just for Fun
www.spiltinkgallery.com
(503) 442-6427
as one.”
“History tells us we have
to sit down and come up
with the best solution,” Ai
said. “And I believe this is a
possibility, because all
policies are designed by
human beings, and deep in
our hearts we have this
compassion and we have
the ability to make
something nicer for each
other.”
TALKING STORY IN
ASIAN AMERICA
n Polo
Polo’s “Talking Story”
column will return soon.