SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa.—Lathan Norton was sick and didn’t play on Saturday at the Little League World Series. But on Sunday he scored the winning run in the championship game.
Lathan raced home from second base on an overthrow at first as Lake Mary, Fla., rallied to beat Taiwan 2–1 in eight innings and claim the title.
“It was the greatest feeling ever,” said Lathan, who had a fever of 102 on Saturday but recovered before the championship contest. “I still haven’t had time to let it all sink in, but it feels like the most amazing thing ever.”
Taiwan clung to a 1–0 lead from the first inning until the sixth and final inning of regulation. The Southeast region representatives outhit Taiwan and had a runner on third in three separate innings, but couldn’t get a run across earlier in the game.
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, delivered. Finding the gap in shallow left field, his hit gave Chase Anderson enough time to sprint home and tie the game.
In the eighth, Lathan was placed by rule as the automatic runner on second base to start the inning. Hunter Alexander bunted and the throw to first went into the outfield. Florida players poured out of the dugout while the Taiwan players crumpled.
“I was just thinking, ‘Stay fair, stay fair,’” Hunter said. “After that ball goes past me, I say, ‘Let’s go!’”
Taiwan drew two straight walks to start the game. After a sacrifice bunt that moved the runners over and a pop out, Hu Yen-Chun hit a ball toward third base, which ricocheted off James Feliciano. Chiu Wei-Che scored easily with what would be Taiwan’s only run of the game
This is the first championship in nine tries for Florida, which also came from behind in its 10–7 semifinal win over Texas on Saturday, scoring five runs in its final at-bat.
“We came here to do something. We came here to do a job, and today we accomplished that job,” Florida Manager Jonathan Anderson said. “We took a loss to Texas [earlier in the tournament]. We battled all the way back and here we are to talk about how we won this whole thing.”
Taiwan was a dominant team at the Little League World Series from 1969, when it won its first championship, to 1996, when it claimed its 17th. But it had only made the title game once since, in 2009, a loss to California, before Sunday. Lee Cheng-Ta managed both that team and this year’s club, Kuei-Shan Little League from Taoyuan, Taiwan. Last season, he led the same team—with a completely different roster—to a third-place finish.
Coaches for Taiwan, representing the Asia-Pacific region, declined to attend the postgame news conference.
