Championship weekend for the Little League World Series is underway, with the international and United States finals taking place on Saturday. First up was Chinese Taipei taking on Venezuela for the international title, with Texas vs. Florida still to come for the U.S. championship.
In the first matchup, Chinese Taipei (the official name for Taiwan in this tournament) handily defeated Venezuela 4-1 to advance to the LLWS final on Sunday. The Asia-Pacific region winners held strong on defense and took advantage of Venezuela’s mistake to earn the win.
Pitcher Lai Cheng-Xi had an incredible game for Chinese Taipei, pitching 12 strikeouts across five and a half innings. Lai’s dominance made it difficult for Venezuela to get on base throughout the first five innings, and he kept the Latin America region champs scoreless until the final inning.
Luis Yepez, who has been playing great throughout the tournament, started off on the mound for Venezuela but struggled early, allowing multiple batters to walk in the first inning. A wild pitch from Yepez gave Chinese Taipei a chance to strike first, with Chiu Wei-Che able to easily steal home.
Although Yepez got back into a groove and threw three strikeouts in the second, he was pulled in favor of José Pérez in the third inning after letting Chinese Taipei load the bases. A walk and a wild pitch from Pérez gave Chinese Taipei two more runs in the third, taking a 3-0 lead.
Chinese Taipei scored again in the fifth inning after Samuel Carrasquel and Yepez collided in center field on the way to catch a pop fly, preventing Carrasquel from catching the ball and ending the inning.
Venezuela fought back in the sixth inning, getting two runners on base and threatening to make a comeback. Lai, who had racked up more than 85 pitches, was swapped out for Chiu. Venezuela scored its first run off a sacrifice hit, but Chinese Taipei got the third and final out to win the game 4-1.
With the win, Chinese Taipei will move on to face the winner of Texas vs. Florida in the Little League World Series final on Sunday. They will attempt to be the first international team to take the World Series title since Japan did it in 2017.
Source Agencies
