Little League World Series 2011: California Beats Japan With Walk-Off

Pratto finished the day with three hits on four at bats, making him the game’s only player with more than one hit.

In the third inning, Japan LF Kaito Suzuki opened up the day’s scoring thanks to an error, followed later than inning when California catcher Hagan Danner popped a solo home run.

Maybe he was out of ideas for anti-BCS screeds this week, or maybe he got tired of writing that college athletes ought to get paid. Or maybe this idea only seems extraordinarly bizarre to a handful of us. But Dan Wetzel has an idea about how to make the Little League World Series even better: Pay players.

This argument shows that Wetzel either doesn’t understand or is willfully ignorant of what “not-for-profit” means. Having a great deal of revenue or even clearing a lot of Wetzel calls “profits” (they’re not) does not make an entity for-profit. Take a look at the Red Cross budget sometime.

After Tuesday saw Canada and U.S. Southwest, represented by Warner Robins Little League from Warner Robins, Ga., eliminated from tournament play by Japan and U.S. Mid-Atlantic, the de facto hometown team, represented by Keystone LL from Clinton County, Pa., respectively, there are two winner’s bracket games lined up for Wednesday.

Winner’s bracket, you say? Aren’t these little tykes were all winners, you say? That may be true, inquisitive reader, but in the LLWS some are more winner than others. That means the two teams that lose Wednesday won’t be knocked out of the tournament, but will play Tuesday’s winners instead.

The 2011 Little League World Series is down to eight teams, with four from the United States and four international teams remaining. Four of those remaining teams are in action on Tuesday, while two more will be playing in a consolation game. The schedule kicks off with that game - New England vs. Europe - at 1:00 P.M. ET. That game can be seen on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com.

Canada and Japan play the first tournament game of the day at 4:00 P.M. ET. The winner will advance to an elimination game against the loser of tomorrow’s Latin America-Mexico game. The loser will be eliminated from the tournament. The game will be shown on ESPN and ESPN3.com.

The 2011 Little League World Series (LLWS) begins to narrow its field down on Monday, as the first consolation game starts the day. Both losers in their two games, Aruba North and Harney LL of Rapid City, S.D., play at noon ET on ESPN 2/3D. The kids will say goodbye to Lamade Stadium at the end of the game.

Langley, British Columbia, and Ching-Tang of Chinese Taipei, each 1-1, shift the scene over to Volunteer Stadium at 2:00 p.m. ET. Check out ESPN for coverage of this game. The winner of that contest moves on to play the winner of the 6:00 p.m. ET (ESPN 2/3D) game between Hamamatsu Minami LL of Japana and Arabian American LL of Saudi Arabia.

The 2011 Little League World Series (LLWS) continued on Sunday and started things off with a bang. The first game of the day was between Venezuela and Canada, which resulted in an 8- victory by Venezuela. Shortstop Yonny Hernandez picked up three hits, including two two-run home runs.

Billings, MT, and Lafayette, La., played a close game, but Montana emerged with the 3-1 victory. Ben Askelson’s two-run double in the third inning put Billings up, 2-0, a lead held for the rest of the game. Lafayette managed to score its run in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The 2011 Little League World Series (LLWS) returns to the winners’ bracket on Sunday afternoon. These teams are the ones that won on Thursday and Friday.

The day’s action kicks off with an international matchup between Langley LL of British Columbia and Gran Maracay LL of Venezuela. The little leaguers will take the field at Volunteer Stadium at noon ET. Put on ESPN 2 to catch all the action.

Saturday’s 2011 Little League World Series action began with an offensive showing by Ching-Tang LL of Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei. They defeated Aruba North, 20-3, in four innings. The game was called under the mercy rule, as Chinese Taipei was up by more than 10 runs after the fourth inning. Aruba North scored all three runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Warner Robins American LL of Georgia led Harney LL of Rapid City, S.D., 6-0, at the end of five and one-half innings. However, starter Logan Arnett allowed three runs in the bottom of the sixth on a passed ball and a home run. Jake Fromm replaced Arnett and finished the game 1-2-3 for the 6-3 victory. This game also featured a pitch that broke a camera behind home plate.

The 2011 Little League World Series (LLWS) continues on Saturday with the teams we saw play on Thursday. As always, there will be two games featuring international teams and two games with teams from the United States.

The day begins with Ching-Tang LL from Chinese Taipei taking on Aruba LL from, both losers in their opening round game. Tune into ESPN or catch the action on ESPN3.com at noon ET. The game will be played at Volunteer Stadium.

Day 2 of the 2011 Little League World Series (LLWS) featured four more matches in this annual summer classic. The day began with Saudi Arabia, Middle East and Africa representative, against Langley, British Columbia, Canada’s team. The Canadians were down, 5-3, entering the bottom of the fifth inning, but they overcame Julian Kinney and Gustavo Leon in the final two innings to score three runs for the 6-5 victory. The winning run scored on a wild pitch.

In the second game of the day, Huntington Beach, Ca., shutout Cumberland, R.I., 11-0. Braydon Salzman struck out five and allowed two hits in three innings of work. Middle infielder Trevor Windisch drove in three runs.

Friday’s Little League World Series schedule features four more games between the best Little League baseball players in the world. All four games, featuring a pair of match-ups featuring teams from the United States as well as team’s representing the Middle East & Africa, Canada, Europe and Latin America will be televised on either ESPN or ESPN2.

Friday morning’s first game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. EST with Saudi Arabia, the Middle East & Africa representative, taking on a Langley, British Columbia team representing Canada. The game is scheduled to be broadcast live on ESPN from Volunteer Stadium.

The 2011 Little League World Series (LLWS) kicked off Thursday morning, opening with an exciting four-game block of baseball action. Teams from the United States and International divisions each claimed two victories throughout the day.

Mexican representative Seguro Social LL defeated Asia-Pacific representative Ching-Tang LL, 3-0, in the tournament’s first game at Volunteer Stadium. Starting pitcher Jorge Jacobo led the squad, tossing a 12-strikeout shutout to open the LLWS in style.

The 2011 Little League World Series begins on Thursday. A good amount of the annual international tournament’s schedule, in its 65th year, is being broadcast on television via the ESPN family of networks.

The teams, consisting of 11 and 12 year old players, will play a double-elimination style tournament in South Willamsport, Penn., to determine which country can be considered to have the best Little League teams in the world.

Warner Robins Little League has been here before. In fact, the team from Georgia has now represented the Southeast Region in the Little League World Series three times over the past five years. Of course, that doesn’t mean the experience is lost on people like coach Buddy Deal:

Warner Robins, which is represents the city by the same name with a population of just over 48,000, claims quite a bit of Little League history. The team won the LLWS in 2007, beating Japan 3-2. It also claims to be the birthplace of tee-ball, and former resident Claude Lewis is known as the “Father of Tee-Ball.” It is also the only city to have produced LLWS champions in both softball and baseball, as their softball team first won in 2009. That softball team also won the following year, making them one of only four Little League teams to win back-to-back titles.