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WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- Ohio’s Walker Osborne and Japan’s Shinnosuke Ijima tossed complete games in the Little League Baseball World Series quarterfinals on Thursday to lift their teams into today’s United States and international championships, respectively.
Osborne, who hadn’t pitched more than 1 1/3 innings in either of his first two appearances, threw 86 pitches and allowed just one run on four hits in Ohio’s 7-1 win over Iowa on Thursday to set up the U.S. Championship against Nevada at 3:30 p.m.
“Walker’s a GOAT,” Ohio manager Timothy Nichting said. “Walker’s a tough dude and he paints the corner, and he gets his curveball going. He’s a tough, tough guy to hit.”
Meanwhile, Ijima had a lighter workload until Thursday’s games, which started much earlier than initially planned with bad weather looming. The right-hander had thrown a combined four innings in two appearances before pitching all six frames in Japan’s 4-1 win over Latin America. Japan will face Curaçao in the international finale at 12:30 p.m.
The winners of today’s games will play for the overall championship Sunday.
“I’m very glad and happy to contribute to the team win,” Ijima said. “I’m so happy to advance to the international championship. Curaçao is a tough team. I really want revenge on Saturday.”
Ohio and Japan had to battle back from early losses to the teams they’ll face today in the double-elimination tournament.
Nevada, which defeated Ohio 6-5 on a walk-off single from Hudson Cowley last week, will look to replicate the result this weekend. Curaçao, meanwhile, beat Japan 6-0 earlier in the week with Jaymiëll Martina and Giendry Ryan combining for a no-hitter.
The team from Willemstad, Curaçao, punched its ticket to the international championship by edging past South Korea 1-0 and trouncing Nicaragua 12-3.