Pa.’s South Williamsport.Taiwan defeated Nevada 7-0 in the Little League World Series championship on Sunday, breaking the Taiwanese’s 29-year title drought. Lin Chin-Tse retired the first 13 hitters he faced and gave up only one hit in five innings.
Taiwan won its first LLWS since 1996, however it has more titles than any other nation save the US (18), including five consecutive from 1977 to 1981.
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In Taiwan’s five-run fifth inning, Lin, a 5-foot-8 right-hander, also smacked a three-run triple. Throughout the competition, the 12-year-old Taipei native smashed his fastball above 80 mph several times, giving batters the impression that he was moving much faster because the plate is only 46 feet away in this level of baseball. On Sunday, his velocity appeared to be about the same.
Prior to Sunday, Lin’s longest start was three innings during Taiwan’s first game versus Mexico. In a later triumph over Venezuela, he gave up just one hit.
In the fifth inning, Garrett Gallegos singled into left field to break up the perfect game, but Grayson Miranda grounded out to second and Gallegos was caught in a double play. It was Nevada’s first time playing in the championship.
Taiwan took advantage of a passed ball and four wild pitches to score runs. After the wild pitches, Jian Zih-De beat the throw home to score after working a walk to start the second inning.
In the bottom of the third, Chen Shi-Rong ran home on a throwing error by Nevada to first base, scoring Taiwan’s second run.
Japan was the last foreign team to win the tournament title in 2017.
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Amanda Vogt and Alexandra Wenskoski are Penn State students enrolled in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism.
