SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Lathan Norton didn't play in Saturday's Little League World Series because of illness, but he did score the game-winning run in Sunday's final game.
Lake Mary, Florida, sprinted from second base to home plate after receiving a throw to first base, defeating Taiwan, 2-1, in the eighth inning to win the championship.
“It's the best feeling ever,” said Lathan, who had a 102-degree fever on Saturday but recovered before the championship. “I haven't had time to really let it all sink in yet, but it feels like the most amazing thing ever.”
Taiwan held a 1-0 lead from the first inning until Florida's final at-bat. The Southeast Region representative outplayed Taiwan, putting a runner on third base three times but failing to score.
Then in the bottom of the sixth, with runners on first and second, DeMarcos Mises, who had struck out in his previous two at-bats, stepped up to the plate and hit a ball into the shallow gap in left field, giving Chase Anderson enough time to score and tie the game.
In the eighth, Lathan advanced to second base as regulation to start the inning. Hunter Alexander bunted and the throw to first flew into the outfield. The Florida players filed out of the dugout en masse, and the Taiwanese players collapsed.
“I was just thinking, 'Play fair, play fair,'” Hunter said. “After the ball went by me, I was like, 'Let's go!'”
Taiwan walked two batters in a row early in the game, and after a bunt advanced a runner and a pop out, Hu Yen-Chun hit a ball toward third base, but it bounced off James Feliciano's body and went right back in. Chiu Wei-Che scored easily, but that was Taiwan's only run.
It's Florida's ninth championship, but they came from behind to beat Texas 10-7 in Saturday's semifinals, scoring five runs in their final at-bat.
“We came here to do something. We came here to do a job, and today we got the job done,” Florida coach Jonathan Anderson said. “We lost to Texas, but we fought until the end, and here's how we won this game.”
Taiwan dominated the LLWS from its first title in 1969 until its 17th in 1996, but until Sunday had only appeared in the finals once, since losing to California in 2009. Lee Chen-ta coached both the California team and this year's Taoyuan club, Keishan Little League. Last season, he coached the same team to a third-place finish, albeit with a completely different lineup.
The Taiwanese coaching staff, representing the Asia-Pacific region, declined to attend the post-match press conference.
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Amanda Vogt is a student at Penn State's John Curley Sports Journalism Center.
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