Lufkin falls to Japan in Little League Baseball World Series Championship

By Robert H Kelly

Photo by Robert H Kelly

Copyright 2017 TexSport Publications

WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA (August 27, 2017) The Little Leaguers from Lufkin, Texas jumped out to an early lead with two home runs in the first inning, but that was not enough to overcome the bats of Japan, at they lost by the score of 12-2 in the Little League World Series at Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Chandler Spencer scored first on a solo home run over the center field fence on the first pitch of the game. Teammate Hunter Ditzworth also connected for a home run down the right field line to complete Texas' scoring.

After that, the Japanese went on a scoring frenzy, tallying  three runs in the second inning, four in the fourth, and five in the fifth. After going up by ten runs in the fifth inning, the "ten-run rule" was invoked and Japan declared the Little League Baseball World Series Champions. Lufkin, who was representing the Southwest Region of the United States, going 4-1 in their bracket while downing the Southeast Region 6-5 on Saturday afternoon to take the United States title. They beat Great Lakes 5-1 on August 17 and New England 6-3 on August 20 before falling to Southeast 2-1 on August 23. They came back and won their next two games; 14-4 against New England on August 24 and 6-5 versus Southwest on August 27 to win the USA title.

Tsubasa Tomii earned the win for Japan. He threw five innings, surrendering two runs, three hits, striking out nine, and walking one. Chip Buchanan took the loss for Southwest, throwing 3.1 innings, surrendering five runs, seven hits, striking out three, and walking one.