Lake Mary, Florida, rallies to beat Taiwan 2-1 in 8 innings to win Little League World Series title

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Lathan Norton was ill and didn’t play on Saturday at the Little League World Series. On Sunday, he was back on the field, scoring the winning run in the championship game.

Norton raced home from second base on an overthrow as Lake Mary, Florida, rallied to beat Taiwan, 2-1, in eight innings and claim the title.

“It was the greatest feeling ever,” said Norton, who had a fever of 102 on Saturday but recovered before the championship game. “I still haven’t had time to let it all sink in, but it feels like the most amazing thing ever.”

Taiwan clung to a 1-0 first-inning lead until there were two outs in the bottom of the sixth. With runners on first and second, DeMarcos Mieses — who struck out in his previous two at-bats — hit a looper into shallow leftfield that fell for a hit. Chase Anderson, who was on second, slid home safely to tie it at 1.

After a scoreless seventh and top of the eighth, Norton was placed on second base as the designated runner to start the bottom half. Hunter Alexander bunted up the first-base line, no one covered first base and the throw to first went into the outfield as Florida players poured out of the dugout.

“I was just thinking, stay fair, stay fair,” Alexander said. “After I saw that ball go past me, I yelled, ‘Let’s go!’ ”

Florida also erased a late deficit in its 10-7 semifinal win over Texas on Saturday, scoring five runs in its final at-bat.

This is the first championship in nine tries for a team from Florida. “We came here to do something. We came here to do a job, and we accomplished that job,” Florida manager Jonathan Anderson said. “We took a loss to Texas early on, we battled all the way back and here we are to talk about how we won this whole thing.”

Taiwan drew two straight walks to start the game. After a sacrifice bunt and a pop-out, Hu Yen-Chun hit a ball toward third that ricocheted off James Feliciano and Chiu Wei-Che scored easily.