Taiwan shuts down Las Vegas for Little League title

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Lin Chin-Tse retired the first 13 batters he faced, allowed one hit in five innings and had a three-run triple in a five-run fifth as Taiwan beat Las Vegas, 7-0, in the Little League World Series championship game Sunday.

Taiwan won its first LLWS title since 1996. Its 18 titles are the most of any country besides the United States, including five straight from 1977-81. “We’re really happy that we have a chance to recapture the championship,” manager Lai Min-Nan said.

Lin, a 5-8 righthander, hit more than 80 mph with his fastball multiple times in the tournament, the equivalent of more than 100 mph on a major-league field.

“I am very excited,” he said through an interpreter. “In the first inning, I was very nervous, but after that it was smooth.”

After his triple in the fifth made it 5-0, Lin tried to score on Tsai Yu-Ge’s ground ball to shortstop. He got caught in a rundown between third and home but was bailed out by a throwing error that  also allowed  Tsai to score on the play.

Lai 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.” His team gave up only three runs in six games in Williamsport, all to Venezuela in a 7-3 victory.

Garrett Gallegos broke up the perfect game by poking a ground-ball single into leftfield in the fifth. He then was doubled off first when Grayson Miranda lined out to second.

“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.”

Las Vegas had beaten Fairfield (Connecticut) in the United States championship game on Saturday; Fairfield advanced to the LLWS by beating St. James/Smithtown in the Metro Region championship game.

The last international team to win the tournament had been Japan in 2017.

Fairfield beat Aruba, 4-2, in Sunday’s consolation game.