Little League World Series 2024: Lake Mary Florida wins world championship in comeback over Chinese Taipei

After forcing extra innings in a low-scoring game, the Lake Mary Little League team from Florida won the Little League World Series world championship on Sunday with a 2-1 win over Chinese Taipei. Florida won its first World Series world championship, doing so after a pair of dramatic victories over Texas on Saturday for the U.S. championship before its Sunday showdown.

Chinese Taipei, which advanced to the world championship after beating Venezuela on Saturday, controlled much of the game after a base hit by Hu Yen-Chun drove in the first run of the game in the first inning. For much of the day, that was the only run either team scored, with pitcher Ciou Zhi-Kai holding Florida scoreless throughout the early innings.

But in the sixth inning, Florida finally broke through when D.J. Mieses, after working a 2-0 count, blooped a single to left-center field that allowed Chase Anderson to score a run from second base and force extra innings.

The game came down to Florida opting to sac bunt a runner they had at second base to third, with an apparent miscommunication by Chinese Taipei leading to the pitcher throwing to first base where there was no one to cover. As a result, Florida's runner was able to score easily and give Lake Mary the world championship by a final score of 2-1.

Florida's triumph gives the United States its sixth Little League World Series overall championship in a row, joining Hawaii (twice), Michigan, Louisiana and California. The last international champion remains Tokyo, Japan's team in 2017, while Taiwan continues to seek its first World Series title since 1996.