A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996.
“Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a great, standout group of kids.”
Photo: AP
The Las Vegas team are chasing Nevada’s first-ever title, while Taiwan are going for their 18th overall. Team Taiwan, represented by Guishan Elementary School from Taoyuan, lost the title game last year to Florida.
After the 1-0 win, Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan said he had asked all of his pitchers to be ready for Saturday’s game, but that starter Liu Wei-hung went longer than expected, tossing 5.1 scoreless innings in the regulation 6-inning game.
Lai said the team would tap ace fireballer Lin Chin-tse, who can throw 80mph (129kph), in last night’s World Series finale.
“We have leveraged our pitching staff according to my plan,” manager Lai said.
The team from Taipei had given up only three runs in their first three games in Williamsport, and Saturday’s encounter again put the team’s pitching staff in the spotlight.
In an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel, in which the two teams combined for seven hits (Taiwan 3, Aruba 4), Taiwan scratched out the only run in the top of the third on a walk, a passed ball, a single and an error.
Taiwan’s Liu Wei-hung cruised through the first five innings before leaving the game in the sixth with a runner on second and one out.
Reliever Chen Qi-sheng walked the first batter he faced, but then clinched the victory with an out on a bunt attempt and a strikeout to keep Taiwan’s Little League World Series title dreams alive.
The Little League Baseball World Series is held every summer in Williamsport. Half of the teams come from the US, with the other half from around the world.
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