Japan won the Little League World Series Sunday in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, with a lopsided 12-2 victory over the team from Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Twelve-year-old Noriatsu Osaka was the offensive star for Japan, hitting three home runs and getting a triple in his 4-for-4 afternoon. The game ended in the fifth inning after Osaka’s third homer made it a 10-run game. The Tennessee team had its own victory a day earlier, however, when it beat the Petaluma, California, team 24-16 for the U.S. championship in a game that set a record for most combined runs in the World Series. The breakout star of that contest was Tennessee’s Lorenzo Butler, who had three home runs and a record nine RBIs.
