Cooper umpires at third as Japan wins LLWS title

Staff/wire report

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, PA.

Chet Cooper of Canfield wasn’t surprised at how Japan excelled during Sunday’s Little League World Series championship game.

“They were really, really strong,” said Cooper who was behind the plate for Japan’s first game at the tournament. “Their ace [Kotaro Kiyomiya] was the pitcher in that first game and his first pitch knocked me back. I couldn’t believe his speed.”

Cooper umpired at third base during Japan’s 12-2 victory over Tennessee. Kiyomiya struck out eight in four innings and added an RBI single.

Asked how he felt when he was given the championship game assignment, the Youngstown State biology professor replied, “extraordinarily humbled. Their were 15 other guys there who deserved that game just as much.”

Cooper said he wasn’t too nervous as the game approached.

“In the middle of the second inning, it dawned on me that I was umpiring in the championship game,” Cooper said. “That was an awesome feeling. Thank God I didn’t get a call.”

Arms outstretched in the air with a smile from ear-to-ear, Noriatsu Osaka couldn’t contain his glee.

Neither could his teammates from Tokyo after Osaka’s third home run of the game put an exclamation point on Japan’s victory in five innings.

The 12-year-old Osaka added a triple for good measure, too, to top off his 4-for-4 afternoon. In a symbolic gesture, Japan’s players jogged the traditional postgame victory lap carrying the flags for both their home country and the United States.

“We had such a great time in Pennsylvania and we really played a good game today. It was kind of a, ‘Thanks,’ ” Osaka said through an interpreter.

A day after pounding out a 24-16 win over California in the U.S. title game, the Goodlettsville, Tenn., sluggers could only muster two hits — solo shots by Brock Myers and Lorenzo Butler.

It was a bittersweet final game for two teams that grew close during their two weeks in South Williamsport. They exchanged customary postgame handshakes at the plate before Japan received the World Series championship banner and took their warning-track run.

“Tennessee was our best friends in the U.S. division,” Kiyomiya said.

Butler went deep off reliever Osaka in the fifth — Butler’s fourth homer in two days — to cut the lead to 10-2 and give Tennessee some home hope. “Everybody knew our pitching was depleted and we were bound for a letdown,” Tennessee manager Joey Hale said. I think they were the best team here at everything by far, pitching, hitting.”