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Tokyo Kitasuna Little League Wins Japan’s National Championship, Qualifies for 2007 Little League Baseball World Series
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (July 23, 2007) – Tokyo Kitasuna Little League
became Japan’s first national champion to earn an automatic berth to
the Little League Baseball World Series by winning the Japan
National Tournament on Saturday in Tokyo.
The Tokyo Kitasuna Little League defeated Hiratsuka Little League,
from Hiratsuka City, 6-5, in the championship game. Tokyo Kitasuna
Little League finished the 16-team tournament with a 4-0 record to
qualify for the 61st Little League Baseball World Series for
11-12-year-olds that will be played in Williamsport, Aug. 17-26.
Teams from Japan have won the Little League Baseball World Series
six times, the most recent in 2003 when a team from Musachi-Fuchu
Little League defeated East Boynton Beach Little League, 10-1, in
the world championship game. Tokyo Kitasuna Little League won the
world championship in 2001, defeating National Little League from
Apopka, Fla., 2-1, in its only other World Series appearance.
Tokyo Kitasuna Little League joins Seguro Social Little League of
Mexicali, Mexico; Li-Shing Little League of Taichung, Chinese
Taipei; and La Victoria Little League of Maracaibo, Venezuela, as
participants in the 2007 Little League Baseball World Series.
The World Series championship game can be seen live on ABC
television at 3:30 p.m., on Sunday, Aug. 26. ABC also will televise
the International championship game on Saturday, Aug. 25 at 12:30
p.m., followed by the United States championship at 3:30 p.m.
The 2007 World Series will be the first operated under the new
eight-year television contract agreement with ESPN/ABC. Five games
will be televised on ABC. This will be the second year that all of
the World Series games will be televised in high definition. For the
sixth year since the tournament expanded from eight to 16 teams in
2001, every team will have games on national television.
All 32 games of the World Series are expected to be televised again
this year. Sixteen World Series games will be televised on ESPN and
11 will be televised on ESPN2.
In addition, the ESPN family of networks will carry all eight of the
U.S. Regional Championship finals in the Little League Baseball
division. The U.S. regional finals have been televised by ESPN and
ESPN2 every year since 1997.
The next berth in the Little League Baseball World Series is
expected to be decided on Saturday when the Caribbean Region
Tournament in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico is due to end.
The U.S. region finals, which will be televised live, are: Thursday,
Aug 9 - Southeast (St. Petersburg, Fla., 8 p.m., ESPN); Friday, Aug.
10 - Southwest (Waco, Texas, 8 p.m., ESPN); Saturday; Aug. 11 -
Midwest (Indianapolis, noon, ESPN); Mid-Atlantic (Bristol, Conn., 2
p.m., ESPN); Great Lakes (Indianapolis, 7 p.m., ESPN); West (San
Bernardino, Calif., 9 p.m., ESPN); Sunday, Aug 12 – Northwest (San
Bernardino, Calif., 10 p.m., ESPN2); Monday, Aug. 13 – New England
(Bristol, Conn., 8 p.m., ESPN2). All game times are Eastern U.S.
time.
Little League Baseball and Softball is the largest organized youth
sports program in the world, with 2.7 million participants in all 50
states and more than 75 other countries.
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