Little League World Series: TV and Live Stream Info for This Weekend's Action

And then there were four.

There are just four teams remaining in 2012 Little League World Series who will each battle for their respective bracket championships on Saturday.

Japan will take on Panama for the International Championship and then Tennessee will play California a little later in the day for the United States Championship.

These games are as important as they come and a loss means that you go home with virtually nothing except for a spot in Sunday’s consolation game—but obviously no one wants to be a part of that. On the other hand, a victory on Saturday means that you are just one win away from a lifetime of glory.

Will we have a rematch of the 2011 Championship Game between Japan and the West? Or maybe we’ll be watching the Latin Americans take on the Southeast. One thing that’s for sure is that you can’t miss a second of Saturday’s championship action.

International Championship: Japan vs. Latin America

Game Info: Lamade Stadium, Saturday, 12:30 p.m. (ABC, ESPN3 and ESPN3D)

On Wednesday, Japan defeated the Latin American champions 4-1 to clinch a spot in the International Championship. The next day, Panama clinched their spot with a victory over Mexico in an elimination game.

Japan opened Wednesday’s matchup with two home runs in the first inning. First, a two run home runs by Kotaro Kiyomiya and then Shun Oshima hit a solo shot to give the Japanese a three-run advantage. Panama would score the first run against Japan all tournament long, but they wouldn’t be able to do much against Tyuki Osada who pitched a gem.

Latin America will do its best to get its revenge against Japan, but it won’t be easy as Noriatsu Osaka and Kiyomiya will both be eligible to pitch. Panama escaped Mexico and I feel that they will have a tough time scoring on Japan, which will lead to its ultimate demise.

Japan got the best of Latin America on Wednesday and we will see the same result on Saturday as the Japanese rolls into Sunday’s Championship Game.

United States Championship

Game Info: Lamade Stadium, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. (ABC, ESPN3 and ESPN3D)

Much like the International Championship Game, the United States Championship Game will be a rematch of a previous game. Last Sunday, the Southeast champions defeated the West champions by a score of 9-6.

California held the lead after the first inning, but Tennessee would keep pouring on the runs and led 9-5 going into the bottom of the sixth inning. California would score once during the frame, but it wasn’t nearly enough to prevent from dropping the first game in Williamsport.

Brock Myers led the offense and although he struggled on the mound, he and Jake Rucker had enough to continue their win streak. Rucker pitched for Tennessee on Wednesday, so I would expect Myers to go against the West champions yet again.

On the other side of the field, Bradley Smith should be taking the mound for California. Danny Marzo threw a complete game two-hitter to push California into this game and Smith is the next best option. I would also expect Quinton Gago to pitch Sunday, should the West champions advance.

Smith is also California’s key to victory from the plate as he’s one of the most feared hitters in Williamsport.

This will definitely be a tightly-knit game whether it’s high scoring or low scoring. In the end, I think that Tennessee again gets the best of California and advance to play Japan on Sunday.