By ALEXANDRA WENSKOSKI and AMANDA VOGT
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — It might not have been perfect, but for Taiwan it was still pretty great.
Lin Chin-Tse retired the first 13 batters he faced and allowed just one hit in five innings as Taiwan beat Nevada 7-0 in the Little League World Series championship Sunday, ending a 29-year title drought for the Taiwanese.
Taiwan won its first LLWS since 1996, although its 18 titles are the most of any country beside the United States, including five straight from 1977 to 1981.
When Chen Yi-Reng caught a fly ball in left field to end the game, Taiwan’s gloves went flying into the air as the team piled in front of the mound.
“We’re really happy that we have a chance to recapture the championship,” manager Lai Min-Nan said.
Lin, a 5-foot-8 right hander, also smashed a three-run triple in Taiwan’s five-run fifth. The 12-year-old from Taipei hit more than 80 mph with his fastball multiple times during the tournament; to batters it looks much faster because the plate in this level of baseball is only 46 feet (14 meters) away. His velocity appeared much the same on Sunday.
Lin’s longest start before Sunday was three innings in Taiwan’s opening game against Mexico. He allowed only one hit in a subsequent victory over Venezuela.
“I am very excited,” Lin said through an interpreter. “In the first inning, I was very nervous, but after that it was smooth.”
Min-Nan said Taiwan’s strategy throughout the LLWS was to “leverage the defense as the offense. If the other team cannot get any runs, there’s no way they can win this tournament.”
That plan worked pretty well. The Taiwanese gave up just three runs during their stay in Williamsport, all to Venezuela in a 7-3 victory.
Garrett Gallegos broke up the perfect game with a single into left field in the fifth inning but was caught in a double play when Grayson Miranda lined out to second. Nevada was appearing in its first championship game.
“I think you will judge this whole story, not by this one last chapter, but the whole book here,” manager T.J. Fescher said. “They will be heroes upon arrival in Las Vegas.”
Offensively, Taiwan capitalized on four wild pitches and a passed ball. Jian Zih-De worked a walk leading off the bottom of the second and later scored when he beat the throw home after one of the wild pitches.
Chen Shi-Rong scored Taiwan’s second run in the bottom of the third when he ran home on a Nevada throwing error to first base.
After his triple in the fifth made it 5-0, Lin got caught in a rundown between third and home on Tsai Yu-Ge’s ground ball, but he was bailed out on a throwing error that went deep into left field. Lin scored and so did Tsai.
The last international team to win the tournament was Japan in 2017.
Alexandra Wenskoski and Amanda Vogt are students in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.