Jonathan Schoop had the game-tying hit in the sixth and the winning hit in the seventh to lead Willem Willemstad, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles into the international championship game with the win over Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Curacao will play the winner of Corundu, Panama, vs. Nuevo Leon, Mexico, game on Saturday. The world championship is Sunday.
Curacao rallied to tie the game with an improbable four-run sixth, sending it into extra innings before knocking out Taiwan, whose teams won 17 Little League World Series titles between 1969-1996.
In the seventh, Rigynoel Rondei singled and advanced to second base on a sacrifice off Taiwan reliever Hsu Chi-hung. Willie Rifaela hit a grounder to short that Chen Hung-ta bobbled for an error and Quincey van Blarcum followed with a blooper to Chen Hung that he again misplayed.
That was ruled a hit, however, loading the bases for Schoop.
Schoop singled through the hole into left, extending his arms straight out as he rounded first. He ran toward the mound and met his teammates where they jumped around and danced off the field.
Schoop earned the win with an inning of scoreless relief.
Texas 8, North Carolina 2
Chance Murski hit a grand slam and Randal Grichuk hit a three-run homer to lead Richmond, Texas, to the United States final with an 8-2 win over Morganton, North Carolina, on Wednesday night at the Little League World Series.
Texas plays the winner of the Thousand Oaks, California, vs. Preston, Maryland, game on Saturday for the championship.
In the second inning, Tyler Ford doubled, and Matt Daniels and Dustin Moehlig hit consecutive singles to load the bases for Murski. Murski, hitting only .167 in the series, crushed one to left field off Dykota Spiess for a 4-0 lead. Grichuk added a three-run homer in the fourth to make it 7-0.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later