Taiwan’s 17 Little League World Series championships are the most by any country other than the US, who always get a team in the championship because of the way the brackets are set up, but it has been nearly 30 years since a Taiwanese team won the title in 1996.
Ten years ago, current manager Lai Min-nan’s club went 2-2 in the tournament, losing their second game in the double-elimination tournament to Mexico.
Now, Lai is back with Taipei-based Tung-Yuan after defeating South Korea in the Asia-Pacific regional final. This year marks Taiwan’s fourth consecutive and 33rd appearance in tournament history. Tung-Yuan face Mexico today in their first game.
Photo: AP
The Little League World Series first-round bracket matchups were announced not long before the Asia-Pacific regional tournament, something Lai and his team took note of. They wanted to get another chance at the team who ended Taiwan’s chances 10 years ago.
“A famous Taiwanese saying is you always want to do hard work for 10 years for one minute to shine,” Lai said through an interpreter.
Tung-Yuan bring strong pitching to South Williamsport and Lai believes this is one of the best teams to represent Taiwan in recent history.
Unlike last year’s Taiwan club, his team do not seem to have any issues hitting. In the regional tournament, Taiwan outscored opponents 60-1 in the six games they won.
Taiwan also boast five pitchers capable of topping 112kph and Lin Chin-tse throws at 128kph, which looks much faster to the hitter because of how close the mound is to home plate.
There are pitch count rules in little league, requiring a certain amount of days rest depending on how many pitches a player throws.
The Kuei-Shan team from Taoyuan reached the final of the international bracket at the past two tournaments, but were not able to win it all.
Lai hopes for a different result for Tung-Yuan — he wants to bring Taiwan that 18th championship.
“That’s the No. 1 expectation,” he said.
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Anastasia Potapova on Wednesday turned tennis heartbreak into history by becoming the first lucky loser to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final with her thrilling 6-1, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 victory over Karolina Pliskova at the Madrid Open, as Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei exited in the women’s doubles quarter-finals. The Russian-born Austrian, who lost in qualifying last week, has capitalized on her unexpected main draw entry and stunned former world No. 1 Pliskova in a roller-coaster clash despite squandering three match points. Potapova’s run has included impressive victories over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and world No. 2 Elena Rybakina. Asked if she had thought
RSS