Little League World Series 2011 Bracket: Round-by-Round Tournament Guide

The 65th edition of the Little League World Series has nearly arrived.

Japan hopes to win another Little League World Series in 2011. In 2010, a team from the Edogawa Minami Little League in Tokyo, Japan won the title, beating the American champion, Waipahu, HI, 4-1 in the final. 

The 2010 championship was the seventh title for Japan, which trails only the USA and Taiwan on the all-time list. It was their first win since 2003.

Pool play is set to begin on August 18 and will conclude with the final game on August 27 at 3 pm ET.

Including the consolation game, 28 games will be played in the quest to crown a new Little League World Series champion.

Japan's quest gets underway in the tournament’s third game. Their representative this year is from the Hamamatsu Minami Little League from Hamamatsu, Japan. They will open against the Caribbean champion, who comes from Aruba.

The scheduling this year has a few changes from past years. For the first time in 20 years, the first round matches were determined by a random draw, as opposed to any kind of seeding.

There is also an extra day of competition this year, allowing teams extra days to set their pitching rotations under stricter guidelines.

The 65th version of the event should be just as exciting as the previous 64. Let’s take a look at the action.

Watch out for Hamamatsu Minami

This is Hamamatsu Minami first trip to the Little League World Series, and they are going to make it count. They look every bit of this year's team to beat.

This team has been playing at the highest of levels for two years. In 2010 they were narrowly edged 2-0 in the semifinals of the Japan Region to the eventual 2010 World Series champion Edogawa Minami.

There was nothing narrow about their Japan Regional run this year. They qualified by going undefeated in the 16-team single elimination Japan Region Tournament. And most of the games were over before they even really got started.

Hamamatsu Minami didn't just go undefeated, they crushed their opponents. They scored an 11-1 victory over Koshigaya from Koshigaya City, Japan, in the semifinal contest and then defeated from Yokohama, Japan, 14-3, in the championship game.

Those games were over almost before they started as they built large leads quick and early. They scored six runs in the first inning in the championship game, and they scored eight runs in the first two innings of the semifinals contest. 

They only played one game in this one that could be considered. That was a 3-1 win in the quartefinals over Chofu. Other than that game their prodigious offense left little doubt in any contest.

Hamamatsu Minami is looking to become the third team from the Japan Region to capture the Little League World Series since 2003.

Four More Teams Advance to Little League World Series

Four more teams have earned their way into the Little League World Series after coming away with victories in their Regional Final games. The results from the day are as follows;

Aug. 13 Great Lakes Final	North Oldham. KY 3 Hamilton, OH 0
Aug. 13 New England Final	Cumberland, RI 13 Andover, MA 7
Aug. 13 Northwest Final	Billings, MT 7 Bend, OR 1
Aug. 13 Midwest Final	Rapid City, SD 4 Kearney, NE 2
Aug. 13 West Final	Huntington Beach, CA 2 Red Bluff, CA 1

As you can see there were a number of teams who put forth a stellar performance. Cumberland, RI hanging up 13 at this stage is impressive, to say the least.

Teams square off for battle from August 18th-28th in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Four Teams Advance to Little League World Series

Southeastern: Warner Robins, Georgia

Southwestern: Lafayette, Louisiana

Great Lakes: North Oldham, Kentucky

New England: Cumberland, Rhode Island

Lafayette, Louisiana was the first American team to advance to the Little League World Series when they came back from three runs down in the bottom sixth on a three-run home run. They sealed the victory with another run in the bottom of the seventh to win 8-7 and advance to Williamsport.

Warner Robins, Georgia was the next team to qualify as they advanced to the LLWS for the third time in five years with a 4-2 come from behind victory over Tampa, Florida.

The North Oldham Little League team from La Grange, Kentucky advanced out of the Great Lakes region when Griffin McLarty torched the opponents in a dominating pitching performance. McLarty gave up just one hit in the game as his team went on to win the game by a score of 3-0.

Cumberland, Rhode Island decided to win in a different fashion as their bats were on full display with a 13-7 bruising of Andover, Massachusetts. Cumberland struggled to score runs early in the tournament but with them coming alive as of late they have just as good of a chance as anyone to win the Little League World Series.

Complete Round by Round Schedule and TV Listings

The quest for the Little League World Series begins on August 18th at 1 PM Eastern Time and will run a span of 11 days when the top American side and top International team take place in the final on August 28th at 3PM

The games will be covered live by ESPN and ABC. Here is the full TV schedule for the event:

Aug. 18:
•    1 PM- Game 1 (Asia-Pacific against Mexico): ESPN
•    3 PM- Game 2 (Northwest vs. Midwest): ESPN
•    5 PM- Game 3 (Caribbean vs. Japan): ESPN2
•    8 PM- Game 4 (Southeast vs. Southwest): ESPN

Aug. 19:
•    1 PM- Game 5 (Middle East&Africa vs. Canada): ESPN
•    3 PM- Game 6 (New England vs. West): ESPN
•    5 PM- Game 7 (Great Lakes vs. Mid-Atlantic): ESPN2
•    8 PM- Game 8 (Europe vs. Latin America): ESPN

Aug. 20:
•    12 PM- Game 9 (loser of game 1 vs. loser of game 3): ESPN
•    3 PM- Game 10 (loser of game 2 against loser of game 4): ABC
•    6 PM- Game 11 (loser of game 5 vs. loser of game 8): ESPN
•    8 PM- Game 12 (loser of game 6 vs. loser of game 7): ESPN

Aug. 21:
•    12 PM- Game 13 (winner of game 5 vs. winner of game 8): ESPN2
•    2 PM- Game 14 (winner of game 2 vs. winter of game 4): ABC
•    6 PM- Game 15 (winner of game 6 vs. winner of game 7): ESPN2
•    8 PM- Game 16 (winner of game 1 vs. winner of game 3): ESPN2

Aug. 22:
•    12 PM- Consolation game (loser of game 9 vs. loser of game 10): ESPN2
•    2 PM- Game 17 (loser of game 13 vs. winner of game 9): ESPN
•    4 PM- Game 18, (loser of game 14 vs. winner of game 12): ESPN
•    6 PM- Game 19 (loser of game 16 vs. winter of game 11): ESPN2
•    8 PM- Game 20 (loser of game 15 vs. winner of game 10): ESPN2

Aug. 23:
•    1 PM- Consolation game (loser of game 11 vs. loser of game 12): ESPN2
•    4 PM- Game 21, (winner of game 17 vs. winner of game 19): ESPN
•    8 PM- Game 22, (winner of game 18 vs. winner of game 20): ESPN2

Aug. 24:
•    4 PM- Game 23, (winner of game 13 vs. winner of game 16): ESPN
•    8 PM- Game 24, (winner of game 14 vs. winner of game 15): ESPN

Aug. 25:
•    4 PM- Game 25, (winner of game 21 vs. loser of game 23): ESPN
•    8 PM- Game 26, (winner of game 22 vs. loser of game 24): ESPN2

Aug. 26: Open Date

Aug. 27:
•    11 AM- Challenger Division Exhibition game
•    1 PM- International Championship Game: ABC
•    4 PM- United States Championship Game: ABC

Aug. 28:
•    11 AM- Consolation game: ESPN
•    3 PM- Little League Baseball World Series Championship Game: ABC

Format Change to Create New Match-Ups

For the first 64 years of the Little League World Series, American teams only played each other until they reached the final round. Similarly, International teams only played each other until either the final game or consolation game.

This year, there has been a slight change of scheduling. To accommodate stricter guidelines, an extra day has been added to the competition.

What that effectively does is eliminate four teams from the tournament. To make up for that, two teams from each side of the bracket will play in crossover games.

This will mean that for the first time, American teams will play International teams before the tournament final or consolation game.

In past years, there have been four days where the LLWS had five games played. This year, only one of the tournament’s 11 days will see that much action.

This is also the first time in 20 years where the LLWS first round pairings were assigned via a random draw.

In response to the changes in format, Little League President and CEO Stephen D. Keener had this to say via the Little League website:

“We evaluate all aspects of the tournament each year and the few minor changes we have made for this year will continue to help us conduct a tournament that is both fan-friendly as well as one that gives the players their best opportunity to compete at a high level.”