The 76th Little League World League (LLB) World Little League Championship ended on August 27th in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taoyuan City Guishan Elementary School Baseball team representing the Asia-Pacific region played well in the third place game and won 10-0 in 4 innings ahead of schedule. The Taiwan Little League Baseball team won the third place in this LLB event for the second consecutive time in past five years. On August 28th, the whole team went to New York for sightseeing and visited the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York.
Ambassador James K.J. Lee, Drector of theTECO in New York said in his speech that although the Taoyuan City Guishan Elementary School Baseball team did not win the championship, the performance of the players was remarkable, and they showed the world their sportsmanship and the spirit of never giving up in Taiwan. Ambassador Lee presented the Major League Baseball New York Mets No. 1 Taiwan commemorative jersey, and Guishan Elementary School returned a large commemorative baseball signed by the entire team. During their visit, Taoyuan City Guishan Elementary School baseball team has also received tremendous enthusiastic support from the overseas Chinese and academic circles in Greater New York, Pennsylvania and Washington DC.
The Williamsport Little League was launched in 1947, and Taiwan has won the championship 17 times. Taoyuan City Guishan Elementary School Baseball team won the first 3 games by disparity, but was blocked in the international championship game. They lost 0 to 2 to the Curacao team representing the Caribbean Sea, and missed the chance to enter the world championship again after 2009. Ding Boqiang, Principal of Guishan Elementary School, said that the players worked very hard and it wasn’t easy to get here at the Williamsport Stadium. “Even though we didn’t win the expected championship, we will at least have the third place, which is also the goal we will continue to strive for in the future. I hope that all the young players in their future baseball careers will always remember the moment, when we all stood here at the Williamsport Stadium, how we were supported, encouraged, and cheered by so many people.”
The Taoyuan City Guishan Elementary School Baseball team played fiercely in this competition, scored 35 points in 5 games, and defeated their opponents 10-0 twice in 4 innings; pitching was also remarkable, conceding 3 points in 5 games, it was the first time in half century that Taiwan team has ever pitched two no-hit games in this tournament.
In addition to the affirmation of fighting spirit, the Guishan Little League team also showed sportsmanship on and off the field. After being voted by 20 participating teams, volunteers, media and game staffs, they won “The Team Sportsmanship Award” of which is named after Jack Losch. It is also the first Taiwanese Little League team to win the award in the 19 years since the award was first established.
During the two weeks in Williamsport, the Taiwanese teenager fully experienced the major lineup of the top American Little League games, and even watched a major league regular game. After returning to Taiwan on the 30th, they will go to junior high school and begin onto their next baseball journey.