LLWS Update: Chula Vista def. Taiwan

Chula Vista was just too good a team, too deep, and too athletic.  Their weakest player was probably their starting pitcher who gave up two back to back homeruns, but their manager quickly pulled him and put in their all star Kiko Garcia who pitched the rest of the game and didn't really give anything for the Taiwan kids to work with.  Basically, it sucked haha.  Final score was 6-3, and the one thing the Taiwan kids can come away with is that they didn't give up any home runs which is what Chula Vista was known for.  The game got real interesting with the bases loaded in the 5th for Taiwan and 1 out, but Chula Vista turned a nasty double play.  Odds were definitely against Taiwan but I like the effort and gave Chula Vista a good scare, especially with that monster 2 run home run by Sung Wen-Hua.   



Damn been too busy the past few days, got lots of stuff to post mmmmmmmmmmr

Way to go Taiwan!

They're off to the World Championship!! for the first time since 1996, Taiwan's going to face either Chula Vista, CA or San Antonio, TX (who are playing as I type... and wow Chula Vista is winning 9-0 in the first inning) (Luke Ramirez: age 12/13.. 6'0 205!! I want to see this kid's birth certificate!!).  Against Mexico, Taiwan displayed defensive superiority and great pitching which is insane at this level... of all the little league teams Taiwan's committed the least amount of errors and passed balls off wild pitches, which seems to be a factor in scoring in little league play.  Taiwan's ability to play clean baseball was the difference in the game, as Mexico committed several errors (uncharacteristically) and Taiwan capitalized on almost all of them.  Mad props to Taiwan's pitcher Sung Wen Hua, who pitched a complete game which are getting more rare now that there's an 85 pitch limit rule and the fact that he did it against a really good hitting Mexico team is awesome.  Tomorrow's title game is at noon on ABC.

Just something I wanted to gripe about: it's entirely stupid how Taiwan's uniforms say Asia-Pacific, when Japan's uniforms say Japan, it makes sense when Chula Vista is the West team, and San Antonio is Southwest.  I also cringe everytime I hear "Chinese Taipei," which is due to completely political reasons... heck one time I even heard Brent Musburger say "Chinese Taipei is a beautiful island."  Great.

LLWS Update: Semifinals

Up two against Curacao, who have a flamethrower pitching might I add, bottom of the 4th.  Get it done!! two more innings

Update: it's over, Taiwan over Curacao 5-2!  Taiwan advances to the International Championship against Mexico, which is actually a rematch of the game a few nights ago.  It's gonna be a heavy dose of good pitching, and most definitely another quality game.  The last game they played was close with some drama at the end, so I'm looking forward to it, plus I can actually watch it since it'll be on Saturday 9 AM.  On the other side of things, the California representative Chula Vista (bit south of San Diego) has a chance to get into the finals as well... damn these games are as much fun to watch as MLB, it's essentially a mini World Baseball Classic haha

LLWS Update: First loss to Mexico

Damn! Taiwan lost its first game to Mexico 3-2. The last inning was crazy, lead off homer, then inside the park home run to reduce Mexico's lead only to 1, but Mexico's closer was able to finish the game. All good though, Taiwan still advances to the international semifinals and faces Curacao instead of Japan. Both Curacao and Japan are also top teams in the tournament, so really it's going to be tough either way. Taiwan and Curacao this Thursday 1 pm. 台湾加油!!

LLWS Update: Taiwan blanks Canada

Taiwan 8, Canada 0. Another win for Taiwan, so far in the tournament they're clearly the most dominant team in their own pool (i think it's a pretty weak pool actually), they've outscored their opponents 24-0 and only give up 2 hits.. no errors in two games. eh granted i think the competition isnt great, but they're still gettin it done. Nice to see all the Taiwan supporters in Williamsport PA. Also caught the Japan/Curacao matchup later at night. Frickin crazy.. Curacao won the game stealing home 12-11. Little league is surprisingly fun to watch. Next up for Taiwan: Mexico

Hell yes, Taiwan Little League team putting on the hurt

No work today, so I turned on the TV and caught the end of the Little League World Series game. I guess the tournament just started because they're only in group play, but the team from Taoyuan, Taiwan won big against the Air Force Base team from Germany. No hits, no errors, final score 16-0!!! I just looked it up on Wikipedia and the teams representing Taiwan have won the entire tournament 17 times with only the US having won more (31), but the next closest country is Japan with 6. Last time Taiwan won the tournament was in 1996, so hopefully they can make it happen this year. I'll definitely be following their progress in the next few weeks haha