Courtesy of Susann Schuster
Little League teams from around the world faced off this summer, culminating in a historic Little League World Series. Tung-Yuan Little League represented Taiwan, a historical powerhouse in the series, against Las Vegas’ Summerlin South Little League, with the latter bested with a final score of 7-0.
The Little League World Series is the annual culmination of the season for qualified teams from around the world organized under the international Little League Baseball Organization. One of the premier tournaments that pits baseball players from around the world against each other, the series is traditionally held in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the home of Little League Baseball.
The island nation of Taiwan has a prolific record in this particular tournament, having produced championship teams 18 times since the Far East Region began competing in 1962, including its win this summer. Taiwanese clubs won 15 of those championships between 1969 and 1991. Taiwan’s success was so immense that the 1975 championship prohibited the participation of all international teams after Taiwanese clubs outscored clubs from the U.S. 120-2 over a three-year span. This ban would ultimately be lifted for the 1976 competition following widespread backlash and an internal investigation in Taiwan that proved that there was no cheating on the part of its ballclubs. Taiwan’s win in 2025 is the first for Tung-Yuan Little League, which is located in the capital city, Taipei, as well as the club’s first appearance in the tournament. The 2025 edition of the Little League World Series is the first time that Summerlin South Little League has made an appearance, and the second time that a club from Las Vegas has competed. The previous occurrence was in 2014 between Mountain Ridge Little League and Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West Little League in the United States bracket of the competition.
Leading up to the final championship game on August 24th, Tung-Yuan was 6-1, having bested mainland China in the first round, Guam in the second round, dropping the third round to South Korea, then winning the four subsequent games against Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and South Korea, respectively. Las Vegas had a record of 5-1 heading into the final, dropping only one game in the fourth round against the U.S.’ Metro Region.
The championship final took place on the afternoon of Sunday, August 24th. Right-hand pitcher and right-fielder, # 23 Lin Chin-Tse started for Taiwan and easily cemented himself as the superstar of the game. Through the six-inning game, Chin-Tse fanned four through five innings, allowing only one hit and no runs while on the mound. At the plate, Chin-Tse hit a base-clearing triple in the bottom of the 5th to bring the score up to 5-0, and would immediately score after a bad throw to third in an attempt to tag him out on a base hit from #10 Tsai Yu-Ge, who then went around for the final run of the 7-0 ballgame.
