Since its founding in 1947, the Little League World Series has garnered international attention. With the iconic tournament less than a week away, here are the top five performances from international players at Williamsport.
Standing at five feet and one inch and weighing 105 pounds, Tsubasa Tomii made opposing batters look silly for the entirety of the 2017 LLWS. Tomii pitched in three games for his team; in his first two appearances, he pitched six innings, giving up zero runs, and had a 2-0 record.
Tomii’s third appearance at the mound came in the LLWS final against Texas; Tomii had a rough start, giving up a home run on the first pitch he threw and conceding another run later in the inning. However, Tommi was unhittable for the rest of the game, pitching four consecutive clean innings, leading to a 12-2 win for Tokyo, Japan. This win marks the last time an international team has won the LLWS.
Seoul, South Korea, had a dominant 2014 LLWS, winning by an average of five runs throughout the tournament. The star pitcher for the South Korea team was Jae Yeong Hwang. Going into the final against Chicago, Hwang had pitched eight and one-third innings, only given up one run, and had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 19/1. In the final, Hwang only pitched two innings; however, he gave up zero runs and gave his team a 2-0 lead, hitting two RBIs in the first two innings. Hwang hit just under .500 for the entirety of the tournament. Additionally, the two-way sensation hit three home runs, scored six times, and drove in seven runs throughout the tournament. Hwang was truly the leader of the South Korean 2014 LLWS championship team.
In 1996, the Chinese Taipei LLWS team had one of the most dominant runs in the tournament’s history. This team outscored its opponent 62-9 throughout the tournament and won the final 13-3 against Rhode Island. Their star slugger, Chin-Hsiung Hseih, was the catalyst of this offense. Hseih hit .706 throughout the tournament, with seven home runs and 15 runs batted in. To put into perspective how dominant Hseih was, he had more RBIs than runs scored against his team in the tournament.
Jesus Sauceda has the best single-game performance in the history of the LLWS. In the pool play stage of the 2008 LLWS, Sauceda took the mound against the Italian LLWS team. Sauceda pitched a perfect game for four innings, striking out all twelve batters he faced.
Additionally, at the plate, Sauceda went three for three, had six RBIs, and hit a grand slam. The game ended after four innings due to the LLWS mercy rule. However, this still counts as a perfect game for Sauceda and a monstrous night at the plate.
In 1957, Macias took the mound for Monterrey, Mexico LLWS team in the championship game, in hopes to lead his team to the first ever LLWS title by an international team. Monterrey, Mexico, were massive underdogs in the final game against La Mesa, California. Macias pitched a perfect game, leading his team to a 4-0 victory. The ambidextrous pitcher struck out 11 pitchers in the title game and is known as the most iconic LLWS player ever. His story is so inspirational and impressive that a bio-picture film was made about it in 2009 called “The Perfect Game“.
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Be on the lookout for World Baseball Network‘s coverage of the Little League World Series all next week.
Photo Credit: A general view is seen during the second inning of the Little League World Series Championship Game between the West Region team from El Segundo, California and the Caribbean Region team from Willemstad, Curacao at Little League International Complex on August 27, 2023 in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
