LLWS 2013: Analysis and Predictions for Round 3 Games

The 2013 Little League World Series enters the third round with only four teams from both the United States and international brackets still in the running to win youth baseball's ultimate championship.

Before the U.S. Northwest squares off with the Southeast to cap off Tuesday evening's action, the Asia-Pacific squad will take on Latin America in the first loser's bracket game of Round 3.

New England is the region that's produced the most USA champions in LLWS history; this year's regional club narrowly got through the previous two games by a total of three runs. They will take on the West on Wednesday evening, while Mexico and Japan meet beforehand in the international winner's bracket.

Let's take a brief look at each of these games and make predictions as to which team will win each contest.

Note: Scores and statistics are courtesy of LittleLeague.org.

Asia-Pacific vs. Latin America

With an undefeated record of 6-0 in the Asia-Pacific Regional Tournament—including four wins by nine runs or more—the Taoyuan, Chinese Taipei club entered as favorites to do damage in the Little League World Series.

That's holding true thus far, but the team did face a dose of adversity in dropping an earlier tight showdown to Japan 3-2 and faced an elimination scenario in Round 2.

Thankfully for them, revenge was had in the form of a 6-4 triumph in the subsequent contest against San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico.

The bad news is that Latin America crushed Canada 12-0 to get to this stage, which is an inconvenience to Asia-Pacific since they beat the Canadians 10-2 earlier in the Series.

It should be a relatively close contest, but Asia-Pacific will move on, driven by the possibility of getting another crack at Japan in either the international semifinal or championship.

Prediction: Asia-Pacific 5, Latin America 2

Northwest (Sammamish, Wash.) vs. Southeast (Nashville, Tennessee)

Falling victim to New England star Harry Azadian's prowess on the mound and at the plate, the Northwest's representatives from Sammamish, Washington find themselves in an elimination situation after a 9-7 loss.

It's nothing to be ashamed of, because it was a highly competitive game. After blowing a four-run lead—and yielding multiple runs with one out remaining in the final inning—a 6-5 victory was salvaged over Urbandale, Iowa.

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll praised the effort:

But Sammamish's impending opponent from South Nashville Little League has looked strong since losing to Westport by one, winning convincingly in the next two games by an average of nine runs.

Both teams are riding good waves of momentum, which should make for an intriguing and close clash in South Williamsport, Pa. Given the shakiness the Northwest showed in closing out the last contest, it looks as though Nashville will come out on top.

Prediction: Southeast 4, Northwest 3

Mexico vs. Japan

Yet another squad from Tokyo is making a strong bid to win the World Series title, hailing from the renowned city's Musashi Fuchu Little League.

Should this Japanese team pull off a win in either of the next two games, they will advance to the international championship—and would be only two victories away from being the third team from Tokyo in four years to win it all.

This could be a defensive struggle thanks to both sides sporting strong pitching, though Tijuana, Mexico, does boast immense firepower at the dish, evidenced by their previous two triumphs of 12-0 and 13-0 respectively.

Mexico shouldn't have such an easy time plating that many runs, but then again, Panama didn't put up much of a fight.

In exploding for seven runs in the first two innings, there was no letup from the runaway victors, as third baseman Ramon Mendoza swatted two home runs including a grand slam to lead the charge.

Even with Japan's recent track record of success, the offense Mexico sports should be enough to get to the international final directly.

Prediction: Mexico 7, Japan 3

West (Chula Vista, Calif.) vs. New England (Westport, Conn.)

The grit that the bunch from Westport, Connecticut have shown is admirable, but the West's Chula Vista, Calif. team has a dynamic player in Grant Holman who has been the talk of the tournament recently.

Holman hurled a no-hitter against Gross Pointe, Michigan, which was the first such occurrence of that unique milestone since 1979, per ESPN Stats & Info:

What made it even more impressive is that pitchers are only allowed a maximum of 85 pitches in a single game, a rule that was first established in 2007. Even with an additional seventh inning of work in the 3-0 victory, Holman managed to operate with enough efficiency to get the job done.

The towering 6'4" Holman was on the highlight reel again in the team's most recent game, ensuring that there wouldn't be extra inning this time around. He smashed a grand slam to lead his team to a 15-3 win in four innings over Newark.

After the game, Chula Vista manager Rick Tibbett implied that he wasn't concerned when his team fell behind 2-0 after the top of the first, noting that his lineup usually produced eight to 10 runs per game.

No matter who's on the bump for Westport, it will be a difficult task to slow down the same area of California that produced a World Series champion as recently as 2009.

Prediction: West 8, New England 4