SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Jay-Dlynn Wiel and Nasir El-Ossais hit back-to-back singles against Taiwanese ace Fan Chen-Jun and later scored, leading Curacao to a 2-0 win over Taiwan last Saturday in the semifinals of the Little League World Series.
Taiwan enters the game having outscored its opponents 25-1 in its three previous tournament outings, but Curacao — which lost to Taiwan 9-1 on Wednesday — kept the Taiwanese bats quiet until the Caribbean broke through. team.
Fan entered in the bottom of the fourth to face the top of Curacao’s lineup. Fan didn’t allow a hit all tournament, but Jay-Dlynn hit a hard grounder to left field and Nasir followed with a single to right.
After a steal from Jay-Dlynn, Curacao had runners on first and third when Joshua Acosta Fernandez laid down a bunt. The bunt had Fan, third baseman Liu You-An and catcher Chen Kai-Sheng confused about who was covering home and who was taking the ball. Liu took the ball and knocked Chen down, allowing Jay-Dlynn to score.
Chen tossed the ball back to Fan, but it was another drop and Nasir scored from first, making it a 2-0 game.
Curacao will play the winner of the semifinal in the US bracket, between California and Texas. The game is scheduled for Saturday.
Curacao returned to the Little League World Series championship after losing to Hawaii 13-3 in the title game last year. Curacao, an island with a population of just over 150,000, has won the Little League World Series once, in 2004. It has been runner-up three times since and has five players and the coaching staff from last year. who are champions of the international bracket.
Taiwan dominated the LLWS from 1969 to 1996, winning 17 times, but has not won the tournament since. It made the championship in 2009 under manager Lee Cheng-Ta, who is also in charge of the club this year.