SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — For the last two weeks, Curaçao Little Leaguers were focused and disciplined about what they ate, when they slept and how they practiced for youth baseball's biggest tournament.
Now, the champs can relax and enjoy a treat or two.
Juriënsly De Windt and Shardijon De Lanoi each drove in three runs, and Curaçao won its second Little League World Series title, beating Nevada 11-2 in the championship game on Sunday.
“Every kid
(will eat) McDonald’s,” Curaçao coach Railison Gijsbertha said, smiling ear-to-ear, alongside three beaming players who couldn’t wait to take the trophy home to their tiny island nation for the first time in 22 years.
De Windt started on the mound and allowed two runs, one earned, in three innings. Giendry Ryan and Steven Felix were nearly flawless in relief with four strikeouts over the final three innings for the tiny island nation, which previously won the tournament in 2004.
Curaçao had advanced to the finals by winning the international title in 2005, 2019, 2022 and 2023. This time, the group from Pariba Little League in Willemstad had enough firepower from the mound and at the plate to beat the U.S. champion.
Curaçao went unbeaten in the double-elimination tournament before overcoming an early two-run deficit to the team from Henderson, Nevada.
Ryan fanned four in 2 1/3 innings. Felix forced Nevada’s final batter to pop out to Giendry in center field. Once the ball was safely in his glove, the celebrations began.
Giendry tossed his glove in the air as his teammates swarmed him in the outfield. Curaçao’s infielders showered each other with water as a pack of fans tucked behind the third base dugout waved the Curaçao flag.
Curaçao’s support grew beyond its native fans as the tournament wore on. Many fans from the United States began wearing its signature navy blue and yellow hat, some loaded with signatures that Curaçao players were happy to provide throughout the week.
“When we went to the shop, we saw people from the States were buying our stuff,” Gijsbertha said. “Our team is a good team, a great team, and when they ask us to sign a ball, we do that.”
They were quiet early as it looked like Nevada, the first U.S. team to advance to the championship without a home run, would finally crack Curaçao’s standout pitchers.
Following a bunt from Nevada’s Michael Kleiner, Maddox Bryan lined a single to center field, driving in two runs. Nevada fans along the first base line waved signs, including one featuring World War II icon Rosie the Riveter and dedicated to Carsynn Meyer, the first girl to play for the U.S. in the championship game.
Meyer, who became the first girl to get a hit in the U.S. championship when Nevada beat Ohio on Saturday, went 0 for 2 against Curaçao.
Curaçao tied it when De Lanoi lined a ball off the glove of a diving Kleiner at second base for a two-run single.
The international champs took the lead for good on a two-run double by Jaymiëll Martina in the fourth. De Windt added a bases-clearing double in the fifth that brought the Curaçao fans to their feet. The Curaçao radio broadcast team, which led the crowd in the country’s national anthem before the game, began to exult.
Nevada also was the runner-up last year, falling to Taiwan in the championship game.
“When they look back and kind of realize what they’ve accomplished and what they’ve gained from here on out,” Nevada coach Cory Edwards said, “I hope they shoot me a text or give me a call and just remember that it was a hell of a ride.”
___
Alex Harkins is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.
___
See AP’s full sports coverage here
