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.
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
HEATED RIVALRY: The pair had met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of the encounters and entering the final as the favorite to take the title Elena Rybakina took revenge over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win a nail-biting Australian Open final yesterday and clinch her second Grand Slam title. The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2 hours, 18 minutes. It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis. The ice-cool Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. It was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open
Denver superstar Nikola Jokic returned from a 16-game injury absence to post a 31-point, 12-rebound double-double on Friday and propel the Nuggets to a 122-109 NBA victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic had not played since suffering a bone bruise in the left knee he hyperextended in a game against Miami on Dec. 29 last year. The Serbian big man did not miss a beat. He led all scorers, connecting on eight of 11 shots from the field, and also handed out five assists with three steals while playing just 24 minutes, 32 seconds as the
BATTERED AND BRUISED: Alcaraz suffered a cramp in the third set, but was allowed treatment despite Zverev’s protests, and continued on to win in five-and-a-half hours An ailing Carlos Alcaraz battled past Alexander Zverev yesterday in five epic sets to reach his first Australian Open final and move within a match of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. The world No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5 hours, 27 minutes in hot conditions to head to tomorrow’s title match. He only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment
RSS