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.
Jesper Boqvist on Tuesday scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period as the Florida Panthers, after raising their second straight NHL Stanley Cup banner, opened the defense of the title by beating the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2. Mackie Samoskevich — getting his second assist, the fifth two-point game of his career — chipped the puck toward the goal and Boqvist knocked it out of the air for the lead with 10 minutes, 20 seconds left. A.J. Greer and Carter Verhaeghe also had goals for Florida, who got 17 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Frank Nazar had a goal and an assist and Teuvo
World No. 3 Alexander Zverev on Monday said that he was playing “terrible tennis” after he was knocked out of the Shanghai Masters by France’s Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. His exit leaves Novak Djokovic as the tournament’s top-ranked player, increasing the 38-year-old Serb’s chances of winning a record-extending fifth title in the Chinese financial hub. In stifling conditions, world No. 54 Rinderknech came back from a set down to stun an increasingly rattled Zverev into submission. It is the second time the Frenchman has beaten him, after bundling him out of Wimbledon earlier this year. A despondent Zverev told reporters the match had
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Nathan Lukes hit a two-run single and Addison Barger had three of Toronto’s 12 hits as the Blue Jays bounced back After taking down the storied New York Yankees in their own ballpark in their American League Division Series on Wednesday, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider was ready to revel in the triumph. “Start spreading the news,” Schneider said while popping a bottle of bubbly to set off the Blue Jays’ jubilant celebration inside their Yankee Stadium clubhouse. With the party under way, the familiar lyrics from Frank Sinatra’s version of New York, New York — the Yankees’ long-time victory anthem — sounded in the background as roaring Toronto players sprayed each other with booze in the Bronx. This time, it was their
‘IT’S BASEBALL’: In just the second error to end a post-season series in the MLB, the Phillies reliever fumbled a comebacker and threw to home, despite the signal Eyes red, Orion Kerkering on Thursday received words of support from his Philadelphia Phillies teammates. “Just keep your head up. It’s an honest mistake. Just, it’s baseball,” he remembered hearing. “You’ll be good for a long time to come,” they added. “It’s not my fault, then. We had opportunities to score,” was the message he kept getting. Kerkering made a wild throw past home plate instead of tossing to first after mishandling Andy Pages’ bases-loaded comebacker with two outs in the 11th inning. Pinch-runner Kim Hye-seong scored and the Phillies were eliminated with a 2-1 loss that gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a
RSS