When Yuki Mizuma stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and nobody out in the top of the first inning of the championship game at the 39th annual Japanese national tournament, he did what cleanup hitters are supposed to do.

Mizuma launched a grand slam home run that gave his Chiba City Little League all-star team a four run lead four batters into the game, and Chiba City rode the momentum to a 16-3 victory over Gifu Tohno Little League at Edogawa-Ku Stadium near Tokyo.

With the win, Chiba City became the first league from Chiba prefecture to win the Japanese championship since 1976, and advanced to the Asia Region tournament at Kitakyushu, Japan. Thanks in part to two huge assists from the South Korean team competing in the region tournament, Chiba City later advanced to the Little League World Series, where they finished in fourth place.

Mizuma's home run, his third in Chiba City's four games at the All-Japan tournament, helped give starting pitcher Fumiki Sakuyama a 6-0 lead before he took the mound in the bottom of the first inning. Gifu Tohno scored twice in the inning, but Chiba City got the runs back in the second, then pulled away late with a seven run rally in the fifth.

Sakuyama and relief pitcher Kazuki Matsuo combined to hold Gifu Tohno to only one run after the first inning, and did not allow an extra base hit in the game. Chiba City, by contrast, struck for eight extra base hits against four Gifu Tohno pitchers. Sakuyama helped his own cause with two home runs, a double, and five RBIs, while leadoff hitter Yusuke Taira doubled and hit his third home run of the tournament. Matsuo and Kisho Watanabe added doubles as Chiba City won its eighth consecutive game in the international tournament.

Chiba City, which claimed the title in its fourth-ever appearance at the All-Japan tournament, capitalized on a depleted Gifu Tohno pitching staff in the championship game. Earlier in the day, Gifu Tohno had upended powerful Musashi Fuchu Little League, 7-4, in a semifinal round game. Musashi Fuchu, the Little League World Series champion in 2003, had homered ten times on the tournament's first day, including eight round-trippers in a 43-1 rout of Sapporo Shinkotoni Little League. It was the second time in three years that a Musashi Fuchu team eclipsed the single-game scoring record at the Japanese championship tournament.

In the semifinal round, however, Gifu Tohno jumped to an 3-0 lead in the first inning, and extended the advantage with another three-run rally in the third. Kitada, the Gifu Tohno pitcher, held Musashi Fuchu to one run through five innings en route to a complete game that moved Gifu Tohno into the Japanese championship game for the first time in the league's history. Gifu Tohno reached the semifinal round in their only other appearance at the All-Japan tournament in 2002.

Chiba City, meanwhile, advanced to the tournament's second day by edging Matsusaka Little League, 3-2 in eight innings, in the quarterfinal round. Chiba City led 2-0 in the fifth inning when a pair of solo home runs drew Matsusaka even. Mizuma, who relieved starting pitcher Shuhei Iwata, kept the Tokai team scoreless in the game's latter innings, before Chiba City tallied the winning run in the game's second extra inning.

The eventual champions then rode a complete game from pitcher Takuya Sakamoto and a home run from Taira to a 3-1 victory over Kanagawa champion Fujino Little League in the semifinal round. Sakamoto carried a shutout through five innings before a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth gave Fujino its only run.

In the opening round, Taira, Chiba City's top pitcher, allowed only one run as the Higashikanto champions defeated Nagayo Little League, 5-1. Sakamoto, Taira, and Mizuma all homered for Chiba City in the win.

Chiba City won its first two games at the Asia Region tournament in Kitakyushu, defeating South Korea (10-0) and Hong Kong (7-2). But a two-run home run in the top of the sixth inning helped Li-Shing Little League (Tai Chung, Chinese Taipei) to defeat the Japanese champions, 4-1, in a critical round-robin game at Matobaike Stadium. The win was Chinese Taipei's third in as many games, and because the tournament format called for the region winner to be determined solely through round-robin competition, Li-Shing would clinch the region championship with a win in its final tournament game.

The next day, however, with an idle Chiba City team watching from the stands, South Korea scored three runs in the third inning, and held on to stun Chinese Taipei, 3-1, at the tournament's other venue, Otani Stadium. The unlikely result -- Korea had defeated a Chinese Taipei team only once since the mid-1980s -- triggered a domino effect that gave Chiba City new life. If Chinese Taipei, Japan, and South Korea finished in a three-way tie -- all now had one loss and no games remaining against the other contenders -- then Chiba City could win the tournament based on Little League Baseball's standard runs per defensive inning tiebreaker, thanks largely to the four runs Li-Shing allowed in a blowout win over Hong Kong in the tournament's first game. But Chiba City needed to maintain their runs allowed advantage by holding Thailand to two runs or fewer in their final game, and they needed South Korea to defeat Hong Kong to create the three-way tie under which the Japanese team would advance.

Chiba City did its part: Iwata hurled a shutout as the Japanese team won a 17-0, four inning contest against Thailand. Then, the Chiba City contingent watched in horror as Hong Kong carried a 6-3 lead against South Korea into the bottom of the sixth inning of the tournament's final game. A Hong Kong win would create a two-way tie between Chiba City and their Chinese Taipei counterparts, and the tie would be broken based on Li-Shing's head-to-head victory.

But South Korean hitters launched three consecutive solo home runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, forcing extra innings and setting the stage for a walk-off, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh that gave the Koreans an 8-6 victory. As improbable as the outcome had seemed two days prior, and then again 30 minutes earlier, South Korea's rally opened the door for Chiba City to advance to South Williamsport.

Chiba City swept its three pool games at the Little League World Series, including a 9-0 victory over defending Little League World Series champion Pabao Little League (Willemstad, Curacao). The Asian representative defeated Canadian champion Whalley Little League (Surrey, British Columbia) in the international semifinals, but fell, 2-0, in a rematch with Curacao in the international championship game.

Linescores:

Opening Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8		R
Hirakata	4	4	0	0	0	0				8
Tokyo Kitasuna	0	1	3	0	1	0				5
Opening Round
Morioka Higashi	0	0	0	0	0	0				0
Fujino	2	0	2	0	0	x				4
Opening Round
Nagayo	0	0	0	0	1	0				1
Chiba City	3	1	0	0	1	x				5
Opening Round
Matsusaka	0	0	1	0	2	0				3
Iyo Masaki	1	0	0	0	0	0				1
Opening Round
Musashi Fuchu	11	11	2	0	3	16				43
Sapporo Shinkotoni	0	0	0	0	0	1				1
Opening Round
Kasakoa	1	0	0	0	0	0				1
Shiogama	0	0	5	2	0	x				7
Opening Round
Omiya	0	2	0	1	1	2				6
Suzaka	0	0	1	0	3	0				4
Opening Round
Gifu Tohno	0	4	0	2	1	0				7
Yamato Takada	0	0	0	0	0	0				0
Quarterfinal Round
Hirakata	0	0	0	0	0	0				0
Fujino	0	3	0	0	1	x				4
Quarterfinal Round
Matsusaka	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0		2
Chiba City	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1		3
Quarterfinal Round
Shiogama	0	0	0	0	0	0				0
Musashi Fuchu	1	1	2	4	1	x				9
Quarterfinal Round
Omiya	0	2	0	0	1	0				3
Gifu Tohno	1	0	0	2	0	1				4
Semifinal Round
Chiba City	1	0	2	0	0	0				3
Fujino	0	0	0	0	0	1				1
Semifinal Round
Musashi Fuchu	0	1	0	0	0	3				4
Gifu Tohno	3	0	3	1	0	x				7
Championship Game
Chiba City	6	2	0	0	7	1				16
Gifu Tohno	2	0	0	0	0	1				3

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