Three pitchers combined on Thursday to give Taiwan the first perfect game at the Little League World Series since 2017.
Pitchers Fan Chen-jun, Chiu Tse-wei and Cai Yuan-hao totaled 14 strikeouts in 18 at-bats to prevent Canada from reaching first base, giving the Asia-Pacific representatives a 6-0 victory.
Fan had nine of the 14 strikeouts. Taiwan’s ace was clocked by ESPN to be throwing at more than 80mph (128kph) for his fastball and in the low 70s for his slider.
Photo: AP
“That’s probably the first time I’ve seen guys hitting 80mph, especially at 12 years old,” Canada manager Cole Warken said. “It’s pretty phenomenal to see.”
The perfect game was the eighth in Little League World Series history.
Meanwhile, California came into the tournament looking like contenders on the US side of the draw, but in the third inning the team to beat found themselves down 3-1 to Ohio after some pitching struggles and small ball from Ohio.
Then California’s bats woke up.
Brody Brooks and Louis Lappe hit back-to-back home runs, a two-run shot to center followed by a solo homer to right field, to take the lead at 4-3, which was enough to hold off Ohio when the game was called at the end of the fourth inning after a two-and-a half-hour rain delay.
With the opening victory over the Great Lakes representatives, the team from El Segundo won their fourth straight game dating back to a West regional tournament that included Hawaii, the state that produced the winners of last year’s title and had represented the West every year the tournament was played since 2018.
COVID-19 forced the cancelation of the World Series in 2020.
California has some time off until their next game on Monday, awaiting the winner of yesterday’s matchup between North Dakota and Texas.
The club from New Albany, Ohio, got on the board in the first inning through a walked-in run. In the second inning, Ohio manufactured a couple of runs with help from a walk, an error and a couple of infield RBIs.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
A goalkeeper with one of Iran’s top soccer clubs has been suspended after he embraced a female supporter during a championship match, sports daily Khabar Varzeshi reported on Monday. Hossein Hosseini, 31, who plays for Tehran team Esteghlal, was suspended after the incident on April 12. The Esteghlal fan rushed onto the pitch where stadium security attempted to detain her. Hosseini approached the woman while security staff were trying to hold her back and briefly took her into his arms. The newspaper said that the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran fined the goalkeeper the equivalent of US$4,700 and gave him a one-match
A wine merchant who blind tasted a different glass of wine at each mile of the London Marathon on Sunday has said he feels “honored” his challenge went viral on social media, as he surpassed his fundraising target. Tom Gilbey, nicknamed “the wine guy,” sampled 25 glasses of wine during the race, stopping to guess the drink’s grape variety, country of origin and vintage at each mile. A video he posted on TikTok has amassed more than 3.2 million views. He had his first sip at about 9:30am, shortly after the race began. Gilbey said he aimed to raise £2,000 (US$2,487) for Sobell