Lathan Norton was sick and didn’t play Saturday at the Little League World Series. But on Sunday he scored the winning run in the championship.
Lathan raced home from second base on a misplayed bunt as Lake Mary rallied to beat Taiwan 2-1 in eight innings and claim the title in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
“It was the greatest feeling ever,” said Lathan, who had a fever of 102 on Saturday but recovered before the championship. “I still haven’t had time to let it all sink in, but it feels like the most amazing thing ever.”
Lathan was placed by rule on second base to start the inning. Hunter Alexander bunted and the throw to an uncovered first base went into the outfield.
Lake Mary's players poured out of the dugout while the Taiwan players crumpled.
“I was just thinking, ‘Stay fair, stay fair,’ ” Hunter said of his walk-off bunt. “After that ball goes past me, I say, ‘Let’s go!’ ”
Taiwan clung to a 1-0 lead from the first inning until Lake Mary's last at-bat. The Southeast region representatives outhit Taiwan and had a runner on third in three separate innings, but couldn’t get a run across.
Then, in the bottom of the sixth, Lake Mary got runners on first and second and DeMarcos Mieses, who struck out in his previous two at-bats, delivered. Hitting the gap in shallow left, he gave Chase Anderson enough time to sprint home and send the game into extra innings.
The bunt that was heard around the world 🌎
— Little League (@LittleLeague) August 25, 2024
Here's the historic play that won Florida their first-ever #LLWS title 😱 pic.twitter.com/Ba0HjhRFQC
To start the game, Taiwan drew two straight walks. After a bunt moved the runners over and a pop out, Hu Yen-Chun hit a ball toward third, which ricocheted off James Feliciano. Chiu Wei-Che scored easily. But it was Taiwan's only run.
Lake Mary is in Seminole County, north of Orlando. This is the first championship for any Florida team after nine appearances in the final.
Lake Mary also came from behind in its 10-7 semifinal win over Texas on Saturday, scoring five runs in its final at-bat.
“We came here to do something. We came here to do a job, and today we accomplished that job,” Lake Mary manager Jonathan Anderson said. "We took a loss to Texas, we battled all the way back and here we are to talk about how we won this whole thing.”
Taiwan was a dominant team at the LLWS from 1969, when it won its first championship, to 1996, when it claimed its 17th. But it had only made the title game once since, in 2009, a loss to California, before Sunday. Lee Cheng-Ta managed both that team and this year’s club, Kuei-Shan Little League from Taoyuan. Last season, he led the same team — with a completely different roster — to a third-place finish.
Coaches for Taiwan, representing the Asia-Pacific region, declined to attend the postgame news conference.
Florida's LLWS runners-up
Here's a look at the eight previous appearances by Florida teams in the Little League World Series (and another appearance of note):
1948: The St. Petersburg All Stars led 3-0, but eventually lost 6-5 to the Lock Haven All Stars from Pennsylvania. As St. Petersburg's Don Eberle and Ralph Patton cross the plate after home runs, they were greeted with a handshake by Lock Haven catcher Joey Cardamone. Photographs of the "sportsmanship" were widely shown across the country.
1949: The Pensacola All-Stars lost 5-0 to the Hammonton All-Stars from New Jersey.
1975: Belmont Heights Little League of Tampa lost 4-3 to the Lakewood Little League from New Jersey. Belmont Height’s roster included future MLB player Vance Lovelace. The tournament was overshadowed by allegations that Taiwan used overaged players, which led Little League to ban non-U.S. teams, and only three games were played.
1980: Belmont Heights lost 4-3 to the Longkuang Little League of Taiwan. Belmont Height’s team included future MLB players Gary Sheffield, Derek Bell, Olympian Ty Griffin and future NFL player Maurice Crum.
1981: Belmont Height lost to Taiping Little League of Taiwan, 4-2. Bell and Crum were again in the lineup.
1984: Altamonte Springs lost to a team from Seoul, 6-2.
2001: Apopka lost 2-1 to Kitasuna, a league from Tokyo.
2003: Musashi-Fuchu of Tokyo defeated East Boynton Beach, 10-1.
Also, the 1973 Belmont Heights team finished third despite losing a game 27-0 to Tainan City of Taiwan. Future National League Cy Young Award winner Dwight Gooden helped the team reach Williamsport, but was ineligible to play because he wasn’t old enough at age 9.
Information from WUSF's Rick Mayer was used in this report.
