The line between who's-that and Little League World Series glory can be razor-thin. Nobody knows this better than the kids from Japan's Edogawa Minami Little League.

Edogawa advanced from the Tokyo district playoffs to the Japanese Region tournament by a single run on a tiebreaker, and then made the most of their opportunity. Edogawa Minami went on to win the Japanese championship and the 2010 Little League World Series.

Edogawa Minami's path to the Little League World Series championship included four wins at the Japanese Region tournament, including an 8-4 victory over Tohoku champion Hirosaki Aomori Little League in the championship game. Key hits from Ichiro Ogasawara and Rysuke Ikeda helped Edogawa Minami jump to a 6-0 lead after just two innings, but Hirosaki Aomori had already overcome a large early deficit in a semifinal win earlier in the day, and made things uncomfortable by narrowing the gap with a pair of two-run home runs in the fourth inning.

But Edogawa pushed across two critical insurance runs in the fifth. Konan Tomori -- who started on the mound before giving way to Ogasawara in relief -- laced a triple to left-center field that scored two runs and provided the final margin of victory. The win gave Edogawa Minami its third-ever Japanese championship, and second in the past three years. The league's 2008 all-star team advanced to the international championship game at the Little League World Series before falling to Matamoros (Mexico) Little League.

Edogawa Minami reached the championship game with a pair of victories on the tournament's opening weekend, and then blanked a tough Hamamatsu Minami squad in the semifinal round. Natsuki Mizumachi fired a complete game shutout in the win over Hamamatsu, and Ryo Motegi's home run in the fifth inning helped to provide the difference in Edogawa's 2-0 win. In the other semifinal, Hirosaki Aomori scored twice in the fourth and fifth innings to overcome an early 4-1 deficit and edge Daito Little League, 5-4.

Edogawa opened the region tournament with one of its toughest challenges, as the two Tokyo-based leagues in the tournament were randomly drawn to face off in the opening round. Edogawa scored five times in the bottom of the first inning against Tokyo Nakano Little League, and added four insurance runs in the fourth inning of a 9-3 victory. Mizumachi and Ogasawara provided the pitching, and Ogasawara also added a home run for the eventual champions in the victory.

Later in the day, Edogawa scored in every inning of a 25-4 win over Iida Little League. Ogasawara homered twice, while Kaname Shinozaki, Teruma Nagata, and Mizumochi also cleared the fences in the rout. Iida actually led 4-1 after the first inning, but Edogawa moved in front following a single tally in the second and a three-run rally in the third. Edogawa then hit full-stride, scoring scored six, five, and nine runs in the game's latter innings to cement the victory.

Edogawa's success at the Japanese Region tournament was made possible when they won a tiebreaker at the All-Tokyo championship tournament. After falling into the elimination bracket at the All-Tokyo championships, Edogawa finished even with Tokyo Kitasuna Little League in a three-way playoff that would determine Tokyo's second representative in the region tournament. Both teams defeated Musashi Fuchu Little League in the round-robin playoff, and when they met on the field, Edogawa Minami and Tokyo Kitasuna played to a 7-7 tie. (Ties are commonplace in Japanese baseball at the professional level, and are typically permitted in non-elimination games in Japan in Little League Baseball's international tournament.) Edogawa advanced over Tokyo Kitasuna based on a superior run differential in the tiebreaker -- they beat Musashi Fuchu by a 6-2 score, while Tokyo Kitasuna downed Musashi Fuchu by an 8-5 score.

Edogawa Minami's victory at the region tournament meant manager Shingo Ariyasu and coach Kenshu Isshi would return to South Williamsport for the Little League World Series. While Ariyasu's 2008 squad fell to Matamoros (Mexico) in a 5-4 loss in the international championship game, their 2010 team won all five of its games at South Williamsport to become Japan's seventh Little League World Series champion. Edogawa edged Oriente Little League (Nuevo Laredo, Mexico) by a 3-2 score in their pool championship game, then eliminated Fu-Hsing Little League (Kao Hsuing, Chinese Taipei) by the same score in the international championship contest. Two days later, Ariyasu's team reached the mountaintop, as Tomori came off the bench to drive in three runs with an RBI single in the fourth inning and a two-run homer in the sixth, as Edogawa Minami defeated Waipio Little League (Waipahu, Hawaii) by a 4-1 score in the Little League World Series championship game.

Linescores:

Opening Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7		R
Kawaguchi	0	0	0	0	0	3			3
Iida	0	0	0	1	2	1			4
Opening Round
Tokyo Nakano	0	2	1	0	0	0			3
Edogawa Minami	5	0	0	4	0	x			9
Opening Round
Asahikawa Taisetsu	0	0	0	0	0	0			0
Hamamatsu Minami	1	9	0	2	2	x			14
Opening Round
Hiratsuka	2	5	4	1	0	4			16
Hiroshima Kita	0	2	0	1	0	0			3
Opening Round
Chiba City	5	0	0	7	0	5			17
Toyota	0	2	0	0	0	0			2
Opening Round
Hirosaki Aomori	2	0	1	0	0	0			3
Kumamoto Chuo	1	1	0	0	0	0			2
Opening Round
Ehime Konan	0	0	0	4	0	0			4
Daito	0	1	1	7	1	x			10
Opening Round
Fukushima	4	0	1	0	0	1			6
Yamato Takada	1	0	0	0	0	0			1
Quarterfinal Round
Edogawa Minami	1	1	3	6	5	9			25
Iida	4	0	0	0	0	0			4
Quarterfinal Round
Hamamatsu Minami	1	5	1	0	0	4			11
Hiratsuka	1	0	0	0	0	0			1
Quarterfinal Round
Chiba City	0	0	2	0	0	0			2
Hirosaki Aomori	1	0	2	4	0	x			7
Quarterfinal Round
Fukushima	0	0	2	0	0	2	0		4
Daito	0	0	0	4	0	0	1		5
Semifinal Round
Edogawa Minami	0	0	0	0	2	0			2
Hamamatsu Minami	0	0	0	0	0	0			0
Semifinal Round
Hirosaki Aomori	0	1	0	2	2	0			5
Daito	3	1	0	0	0	0			4
Championship Game
Hirosaki Aomori	0	0	0	4	0	0			4
Edogawa Minami	3	3	0	0	2	x			8

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