Florida players celebrate securing the state’s first Little League World Series title. (Kyle Ross/Reuters)
Taiwan kept Florida off the scoreboard for 5 2/3 innings of Sunday’s Little League World Series championship game.
But Florida sent the game into extra innings while down to its last out then secured a 2-1 win in the eighth on a chaotic walk-off bunt.
Starting in the eighth inning after six innings of regulation, LLWS offenses begin the inning with a runner on second base. With the game tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the eighth, Florida’s Hunter Alexander laid down a leadoff bunt in an effort to advance the runner to third. But nobody covered first base on the throw, allowing the winning run to score as the ball bounced into the outfield.
The win by the team from the Orlando suburb of Lake Mary is the first in nine trips to a LLWS final by teams from Florida. It denied Taiwan its 18th LLWS title and what would have been its first since 1996.
It was an excruciating way to lose for Taiwan after it entered the final with a 5-0 record in LLWS play. Taiwanese players were in tears on the field at the conclusion of