Isobe Max vs. Takashi Skylarks

Back in February I was able to attend my eldest neice's Little League Championship Game.  We originally had planned to go to a Chunichi open-sen game that day but the Max's game ended up falling on the same day. 
Isobe finished the regular season in a three-way tie for first with the Skylarks and another team and so there was a three team round robin tiebreaker scheduled.  Each team played the other once with the champion being the team that gave up the fewest runs over the two games.  The Max lost their morning game 2-1 and the Skylarks had won there previous game putting Isobe in a position where if they won the final game by three runs or more they would win the championship.
The final game moved quickly as neither team was able to score, Isobe had more scoring chances but couldn't cash in.  The score remained 0-0 into the sixth inning (of a seven inning game).  Things didn't look good for the Max who had to score at least 3, but then things got worse, the Skylarks got men on base and Isobe brought their infield and outfield in to try and prevent any runs from scoring.  That strategy didn't work out as the Skylark popped three consecutive hits over the drawn-in outfielders' heads leading to a 4-0 lead.  The Max rallied in the top of 7th scoring two runs with two outs, but fell short 4-2 finishing in third place.
It was a fun game and I'm glad I was able to go, the Max plays year round and every time I've gone to Japan I've been able to practice with them or help with practice dating back to 2007.  Now my nephew is going to High School (Toyota) and it won't be long until my neices are too old for Little League too.  I will definitely miss hanging with the Max.  Go Isobe!

Pre-game

 

The younger Max team cheering on the older kids

 

Congrats to the Max!!

Over the weekend the Isobe Max, my niece's little league team, won the Toyohashi City title!  The tournament began way back in January and included over thirty teams.  The Max defeated Yoshidagata 8-4 in the final game to take home the 'ship.  Gold medals were awarded to each of the Max players.  The Max has placed before, they won bronze medals a few years ago when my nephew was on the team, but this was their first 1st place finish.  Way to go Max!!!

Isobe Max 7 - Mets 2

The Isobe Max, my neice's little league team, advanced in the Toyohashi Winter Tournament back on January 8th.  The game took place on one of the City's full-sized fields along with two other games going on at the same time in other corners of the field.  The games don't usually conflict with each other, but one of the Max players did hit a rocket down the third base line that went all the way down to the left field wall, about 100m away, straight through one of the other games.
I'm not sure exactly how representative Max is of other little league teams in Japan, but I think that other teams at least in their area do things the same way.  Isobe is a neighborhood in Toyohashi and the name of the elementary school there.  The Isobe Max baseball club is open to everyone at the school and everyone practices together, but the kids are divided into grade levels for the games.  The lucky little guys and gals get to play year-round and winter there is very dry providing perfect playing conditions.  The practices are a lot more structured than in the U.S. (at least mine as a kid).  They usually let me participate a bit with warm-ups and taking infield and it's a lot of fun, the littler kids don't seem to understand why I don't know what they are saying to me.  Most of the fields in the area are completely dirt without any grass in the outfield and the players rake the field after practice.  They also use rubber balls with seams instead of baseballs until Junior High, they tend to take higher, softer hops on ground balls and throws. 
I didn't notice very many differences in the rules of the games, except that players were allowed to lead off and steal at any time.  In the U.S. players have to stay on the base until the ball crosses the plate.  My brother-in-law also mentioned that the pitcher has to stay set for three seconds before throwing a pitch, I don't remember having that rule when I played.