Taipei Municipal Fulin Elementary School on Saturday missed out on a place in the Little League Baseball World Series championship after losing the international championship 1-0 to Curacao.
With the world series split into international and US brackets, Fulin were just one game away from breaking a 26-year world series drought in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, but had to settle for a third-place consolation match against US championship runners-up Tennessee yesterday.
Despite an excellent five-inning outing by Li Fang-mo — who struck out nine Curacao batters and gave up only three hits, one walk and no earned runs — a solitary run from Curacao’s Alexander Provacia in the third inning was enough to separate the two sides.
Photo: AP
“Li performed very well today,” Fulin manager Chang Tzu-chien said through an interpreter. “Competing against Curacao, we don’t have room for error. He missed one signal and the base runner advanced and that’s what we believe cost us the game.”
Provacia, who had capitalized on an error from third baseman Wang Yuan-fu and a passed ball from catcher Tseng Yi-che to reach third base, slid home with two outs on the board on the back of a Jaydion Louisa single into center field.
While Fulin kept the game within reach by putting runners in scoring positions, Curacao were able to secure the win with some outstanding defensive play, including a diving catch from left fielder Jaythan Cordilia and center fielder Davey-Jay Rijke’s sixth-inning leap to rob Wang of a homer at the wall.
Curacao coach Ringemar Raap said his side’s performance in the field had been no accident.
“We’ve been working on defense for the whole year, so what you guys see now is no surprise for us,” Raap said.
Additional reporting by AP
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