SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Lathan Norton was ill and did not play in the Little League World Series on Saturday. But he scored the championship-winning run on Sunday.
Lathan raced home from second base on a high throw at first as Lake Mary, Florida, rallied to beat Chinese Taipei 2-1 in eight innings and claim the title.
“It was the most incredible feeling I've ever had,” said Lathan, who had a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday but recovered before the championships. “It hasn't really sunk in yet, but it's the most incredible feeling I've ever had.”
Taipei held on to a 1-0 lead from the first inning until Florida came up short in its final at-bat. The Southeast Region representatives outhit Taipei and had a runner on third in three separate innings, but were unable to score a run.
Then, in the bottom of the sixth, Florida put runners on first and second and DeMarcos Mieses, who had struck out in his previous two at-bats, came through. Hitting into the left-field gap, he gave Chase Anderson enough time to run home and tie the game.
In the eighth inning, Lathan was placed on second base by ground rule to start the inning. Hunter Alexander bunted the ball and the throw to first went into the outfield. Florida players poured out of the dugout as Taipei players collapsed.
“I was thinking, 'Stay clean, stay clean,'” Hunter said. “After the ball goes by me, I'm like, 'Come on!'”
Taipei received two consecutive walks to start the game. After a bunt that advanced the runners and then a flyout, Hu Yen-Chun hit a ball toward third, which bounced off James Feliciano. Chiu Wei-Che scored easily. But it was Taipei's only run.
This is the first championship in nine tries for Florida, which also bounced back from a 10-7 semifinal win over Texas on Saturday by scoring five runs in its final at-bat.
“We came here to do something,” Florida manager Jonathan Anderson said. “We came here to do a job and today we got it done. We lost to Texas, we fought to the end and here we are to talk about how we won all this.”
Taipei was a dominant team in the LLWS from 1969, when it won its first championship, through 1996, when it captured its 17th. But it had reached the title game only once since 2009, when it lost to California, before Sunday. Lee Cheng-Ta coached both that team and this year’s club, Taoyuan’s Kuei-Shan Little League. Last season, he led the same team, with a completely different roster, to a third-place finish.
Taipei's coaches, who represent the Asia-Pacific region, refused to attend the post-match press conference.
