Curaçao shut out Japan 4-0 on Saturday at Lamade Stadium to win the Little League World Series international championship and reach Sunday's final.
They played on the first day too. Curaçao won that one 6-0.
Pariba Little League of Willemstad is 5-0.
Twelve strikeouts
Jaymiëll Martina struck out twelve Japanese hitters and allowed two.
He struck out the side in the first, again in the third, and got two more in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the sixth. Japan's only hits came from Tensei Yazawa and Yunosuke Yabe.
Japan loaded the bases in the top of the first. Martina struck out Takeru Yorozu, Ryosuke Takaoka and Taiga Yumitori to end it, and Tokyo never got that close again.
Small ball beat the home run team
Japan hit six home runs in this tournament, more than anybody. In the championship they got two hits.
Curaçao's decisive inning didn't include one either.
Jaymiel Antonia reached on a dropped third strike. Nathanael Jansen bunted into a fielder's choice — the pitcher threw it away, then the center fielder did too, and Antonia scored.
Ruendrikson Leuteria bunted him to third. Jordan Richards bunted and the catcher threw it away, scoring Jansen. Juriënsly De Windt bunted and the first baseman threw it away, scoring Richards. Q'Jeaume Valks bunted De Windt to second.
Five bunts, three errors, three runs, zero hits.
Then in the fourth they finally swung. Giendry Ryan singled, V-dien Ignacio Lindo bunted him over, and Martina doubled to center to make it 4-0.
Four runs. One of them earned.
The numbers
Curaçao: 4 runs, 4 hits, 0 errors
Japan: 0 runs, 2 hits, 4 errors
Japan struck out twelve times and walked twice. Curaçao struck out six. Yunosuke Yabe took the loss.
Who did it
Fourteen players, nine of whom pitch: Giendry Ryan (10), Jaymiel Antonia (7), Jaymiëll Martina (16), Jordan Richards (8), Juriënsly De Windt (17), Naeem Angel Coeriel (14), Nathanael Jansen (5), Q'Jeaume Valks (12), Raymiel Antonia (13), Ruendrikson Leuteria (15), Shardijon De Lanoi (9), Steven Felix (24), V-dien Ignacio Lindo (22), Zha-djir Janga (6).
Curaçao beat Japan 6-0, South Korea 1-0, Nicaragua 12-3, and Japan again 4-0. It has allowed three runs all tournament, every one of them in a single inning against Nicaragua, none on a hit.
This is also the first year Curaçao received a direct berth into the international bracket. No regional tournament, no play-in.
Japan's tournament
Joto Little League lost the opener and won five straight to get back: 10-1 over the Dominican Republic, 3-2 over Czechia, 3-1 over Mexico, 7-3 over Canada, 4-1 over Nicaragua.
Thirteen players: Ayumu Hasegawa (2), Hiroto Yokote (16), Kei Kawanishi (7), Rui Tobata (12), Ryoji Sasaki (3), Ryosuke Takaoka (10), Ryunosuke Maeda (8), Shinnosuke Ijima (13), Sou Koyama (1), Taiga Yumitori (14), Takeru Yorozu (15), Tensei Yazawa (21), Yunosuke Yabe (22).
Hasegawa and Sasaki, both listed at 4-foot-8, were the shortest players in the tournament.
Japan has eleven Little League World Series titles, more than any country outside the United States. This is the second time in a week Curaçao has ended their tournament.
What Karl Ravech learned in Williamsport
Ravech is calling his last Little League World Series for ESPN. The network laid him off in July after 33 years and gave him this tournament as the final assignment.
Asked on Foul Territory for his best memory from twenty years here, he didn't name a team. He talked about the first time he came, in 2006.
"Baseball is a universal language."
Then he complicated it. Speaking the same language doesn't mean preparing the same way. Watch the Japanese team take infield — the discipline of it — and you understand that a bat and a ball and four bases are the shared part, and everything else is culture.
He pointed at Canada. When he started, Canada went 0-2 and flew home. This year Vancouver made it to Wednesday. Australia has gotten better too.
"That's ultimately the goal, is to grow the game."
They've done this before
Curaçao and Japan met in the 2019 international championship. Curaçao won 5-4 on a two-run Curley Martha homer, with Jurickson Profar's youngest brother catching all six innings.
Willemstad has now been in four of the last six finals — runners-up to Honolulu in 2022, runners-up to El Segundo in 2023. Its only title came in 2004, on a team that included Profar.
An island of about 158,000 people. Andruw Jones was elected to the Hall of Fame in July, the first player born there to make it. Ozzie Albies sang the Curaçao national anthem in Williamsport this week and, by Ravech's account, had tears in his eyes.
What's next
Curaçao plays the winner of Nevada vs. Ohio for the Little League World Series championship Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ABC.
Full LLWS schedule, scores and every team's hometown. Rosters and box score via Little League and GameChanger.