Still raining steadily at Little League World Series site

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The rain was steady at the Little League World Series baseball complex in South Willamsport, Pa., Sunday morning. A few hundred fans were on the grounds and umbrellas were getting blown inside-out with an occasional fierce wind gust. The concession stands were open and selling coffee and hot chocolate at a steady clip but there was a white cover on the field still.

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California, representing the U.S. with the Ocean View Little League team from Huntington Beach, and Japan, represented by the Hamamatsu Minami little League team from Hamamatsu City. A team from Tokyo won the 2010 Little League World Series. Hamamatsu City is about 135 miles south and a little west of Tokyo on the Enshu Sea and is about the same distance south from Nagano, where the 1998 Winter Olympics were held.

It had a population of about 815,000 in 2009 and according to the city’s website and it has 60% of Japan’s total number of Brazilian citizens (16,000).

The game, which had been originally scheduled for noon, Pacific time, had been rescheduled Saturday night to begin at 9 a.m. to try to beat Hurricane Irene. Sunday morning, however, with rain falling steadily, the game was moved back to noon. But the weather was not improving and the radar showed heavy rain enveloping the area. If the game can’t be played Sunday, it will be played Monday.

For the sixth straight time, the West team lost the coin flip to determine which team would be the visitor and which home. But Ocean View manager Jeff Pratto said Japan chose to be the visiting team so for the first time in the Little League World Series, California will be the home team and bat second in each inning.

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-- Diane Pucin, reporting from South Williamsport, Pa.