Little League World Series 2012: Complete Guide to Tournament Finale

Japan and Tennessee are the two teams in the 2012 Little League World Series to survive pool play and thrive during the knockout round. On Sunday afternoon, they’ll battle in the championship game for the ultimate Little League crown.

Both Japan and Tennessee have had incredible runs to this point, and both have yet to lose in Williamsport. Making it thus far is something to be proud of, but doing so without losing a game is that much more impressive. It wasn’t easy, though.

The championship game on Sunday will be played at Lamade Stadium at 3:00 p.m. ET. The game can be viewed on ABC or online via ESPN3.

Let’s take a deeper look at Japan and Tennessee, how they’ve gotten to this point, which players to watch and who will go back to school as Little League champions.

How They Got Here Japan

Japan has been the most impressive team in Williamsport this year, featuring deep pitching and outstanding hitting. They won their opening-round game easily over Curacao and then defeated Chinese Taipei in a classic duel. A win over Panama clinched them a berth into the international championship game, and they ended up taking on Panama yet again.

The Japanese champions scored early and often against Panama on Saturday, backed by two home runs by their star player, Kotaro Kiyomiya. A strong four innings by Yuta Ishida propelled them to a 10-2 victory to clinch a berth into Sunday’s title game. Hi-res-150732612_crop_exact Rob Carr/Getty Images

As great as the Japan offense has been, the pitching has been better.

They have used six pitchers who have combined for 50 strikeouts and just four walks in 27 innings of work. They’ve allowed just two earned runs in four games and those two came in their most recent matchup. Kiyomiya is expected to take the mound for Japan on Sunday since he hasn’t thrown since their opener.

Tennessee

Tennessee’s path to Sunday’s championship game has been about as crazy as they come. They defeated the Mountain West 12-1 in their opening-round matchup and then took down California 9-6 in a wild game. A 4-3 victory over Texas gave them the opportunity to play for the United States championship on Sunday against California.

If you missed the United States championship game on Saturday, you missed the game of the year. Tennessee took leads, but continued to allow the West champions back into the game. They led California 15-5 going into the last of the sixth inning.

No problem, right? Wrong. California struck for 10 runs in the inning to send the game into extra innings.

Tennessee wouldn’t pout about California’s comeback, though, and they erupted for nine runs in the top of the seventh to take another commanding lead. The Southeast champions wouldn’t allow another comeback as they would take the final 24-16. Hi-res-150739218_crop_exact Rob Carr/Getty Images

Tennessee clearly can hit, but will they be too tired from Saturday’s ridiculous game? That’s a major question going into Sunday and could be the reason that they don’t win it all.

Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dead at 82

Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dead at 82 The astronaut, who radioed the famous "one giant leap" line, died of surgery complications.

Armstrong was a pilot first and foremost, and with the dust flying, craters looming and fuel running low on July 20, 1969, he never wavered. As everyone else on Earth held their breath on that day, his heartbeat never changed as he and co-pilot Buzz Aldrin made the first piloted landing upon the moon.

"Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed," Armstrong informed mission controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center, with the restrained aplomb that marked his life. Two and a half hours later with the words, "That's one small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind," he stepped upon the moon for the first

Armstrong, 82, died Saturday after surgery earlier this month for blocked arteries. A fighter pilot in the Korean War, a test pilot and an engineering professor, he will also be remembered as the astronaut who fulfilled the goal that President John F. Kennedy set out — to put a man on the moon by end of the 1960's — and the first among equals in the pantheon of astronauts from the moon race.



"Neil was among the greatest of American heroes — not just of his time, but of all time," President Obama said in a statement. "When he and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation."

Armstrong became the symbol of the dream not just of one country but of a whole world to reach beyond our own planet . "Even though we were farther away from earth than two humans had ever been, we were not alone," Aldrin said in a statement on Saturday. "Virtually the entire world took that memorable journey with us. I know I am joined by millions of others in mourning the passing of a true American hero and the best pilot I ever knew."

Armstrong flew dangerous mission attacking bridges during the Korean War, piloted the experimental X-15 rocket plane that ascended to the edges of space and once returned to the office after ejecting from a crashed test lunar lander, famously to complete paperwork.

"A lot of people couldn't figure out Armstrong," the author Tom Wolfe wrote in his novelization of the space race, The Right Stuff. Maybe that was because there was nothing to figure out, he was exactly who he said he was, a pilot and an engineer.

"He had nerves of steel. If anyone ever had the 'Right Stuff', it was Neil Armstrong," says space historian Roger Launius of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. "But he was a dignified, quiet man. He could have had the world at his feet but he went back to teaching, that was what was important to him."

Armstrong taught engineering at University of Cincinnati from 1971 to 1979, after retiring from NASA. He served on the presidential commission that investigated the 1986 loss of the space shuttle Challenger, living quietly in Ohio until recent years, when he spoke out against NASA's current plans to not pursue a return to moon landings and to rely upon private spacecraft.

"He wasn't political in his concerns. He was speaking out from his experience ," say John Logsdon, author of John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon. "He avoided the public spotlight as the first man on the moon. But his name will be famous forever. He is gone but his footprints are still up there and will be remembered centuries from now."