In a tournament that favors foreign teams, West Raleigh, representing the United States, fell to Japan 11-1 in the Cal Ripken World Series.

The tournament features the top 11- and 12-year-old Babe Ruth League players from around the world. The American teams are always at a disadvantage because Japan, which has won three times in a row, draws players from all over their country. The West Raleigh team draws players from West Raleigh, Cary, Holly Springs and Apex.

A U.S. team hasn’t won the title since 2009 and have only won four times in the 11 years the tournament has been held. Yet, the best professional baseball is played in the United States. The best players in the world play in Major League Baseball and there aren’t many from Japan playing.

Despite a championship final being stopped by a ridiculous 10-run rule after five innings, the West Raleigh team fought to the end with a pair of hits in the fifth. But West Raleigh, the Southeast U.S. representative, could only muster four hits on the day and committed two key errors.

The Japanese meanwhile rapped out 15 hits and turned a pair of important double plays to keep West Raleigh at bay.

Japan, aided by a home run and a run-scoring error, opened up a 4-0 in the second inning. In the third, the West Raleigh U.S. team cut it to 4-1 but did it on ground-out double play that quelled the rally. Japan tacked on four in the fourth and three in the fifth to wrap it up.

Both teams played fundamentally sound baseball but the favored Japanese team played better and deserved to win.

However, there were highlights for West Raleigh including center fielder Tucker Jackson gunning down a Japanese runner at second base in the first inning and catcher Sam Highfill throwing out a Japanese runner trying to steal third in the third inning.

The West Raleigh team’s biggest accomplishment was defeating all the other U.S. teams, who come from similar geographic areas. If Cal Ripken wants a true World champion, the best idea would be for the U.S. championship to be held separately and a week or so earlier. Then four regional U.S. all-star teams would be selected from those teams and play to determine who will face the International team in the World championship.

The only other fair way to do it would be to limit International teams to a particular population base, rather than national all-star teams.