Juriensly De Windt hit a three-run double, Shardijon De Lanoi also had three RBIs and Curacao ran away from Nevada 11-2 in the championship game to secure the nation’s second Little League Baseball World Series title on Sunday in South Williamsport, Pa.
Pariba Little League from Willemstad, Curacao, ran the table for a perfect tournament, notably defeating Japan twice in the International bracket. They blanked Japan 4-0 Saturday in the International championship game to set up the date with unbeaten Nevada.
Curacao’s first Little League title came in 2004, when future major leaguers Jurickson Profar and Jonathan Schoop were part of the team.
De Lanoi was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth, and the next batter, De Windt, cleared them with his double to deep center to turn a close 4-2 game into a six-run margin. De Windt also pitched the first three innings for Curacao and scattered two runs (one earned), four hits and one walk before Giendry Ryan and Steven Felix locked down the last three innings.
Paseo Verde Little League from Henderson, Nev., represented the Mountain region and finished an unbeaten run through the U.S. bracket Saturday with a 12-2 rout of Ohio. Nevada got out to a 2-0 lead in the second Sunday when Maddox Bryan hit a two-run single to center.
But Curacao tied it in the third on De Lanoi’s two-run single, and they took their first lead an inning later on Jaymiell Martina’s two-RBI double.
Japan 3, Ohio 2
Ayumu Hasegawa dropped a two-out, walk-off bunt down the first base line to bring home the winning run as Japan scored three times in the bottom of the sixth inning to stun Ohio in the third-place game of the Little League Baseball World Series.
Tokyo’s Joto Little League entered the final inning having managed only three hits against Boone Treadway and trailing 2-0. Treadway’s outing ended with one out in the sixth after he reached the pitch limit, and Japan responded with an RBI single to cut the deficit in half.
Japan pulled even later in the inning when pitcher Bryson Williams’ throw to third base got away. With two outs and the winning run at third, Hasegawa pushed his bunt up the first-base line and beat the play to first to complete the comeback.
The team from West Side Little League in Hamilton, Ohio, representing the Great Lakes Region, had broken a scoreless tie in the fourth. Xander Kinkade doubled to right field with two outs, driving in Josiah Infante and Bob Frazier for a 2-0 lead.
Treadway kept Japan off the scoreboard for the first five innings and finished with five strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. Tensei Yazawa earned the victory for Japan after working three innings in relief of starter Takeru Yorozu.
–Field Level Media
