Cranston Faces Tough Taiwan Team in Series Championship

Taiwan’s players swing harder, pitch faster and make fewer errors than the Rhode Island team they will face Saturday in the championship of the 50th Little League World Series.

This year, Taiwan has beaten four opponents by a combined score of 49-6.

The matchups suggest the rough-and-tumble U.S. team from Cranston, a suburb of Providence, has little chance against a country whose teams have won the series 11 of the last 22 years by scores such as 17-3, 21-1 and 12-0.

But manager Mike Varrato and his players have been willing to improvise in the series so far, especially on the basepaths with double steals and steals of home, and may do so again Saturday.

A change in strategy helped Kirkland, Wash., beat Taiwan 6-0 in the 1982 championship game.

“We put down a lot of bunts that day, and they weren’t able to field them cleanly. They made a lot of errors,” said Cody Webster, Kirkland’s pitcher in 1982 and now a Little League coach and Little League Hall of Famer. “And they could not hit my curveball.”

Webster struck out 12 and hit a home run in the win. He got letters of congratulations from around the world and ended up on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

“We were really juiced up to win that day, and we had 35,000 people in the stands all cheering for us, and all speaking our language,” Webster said.

He said the Rhode Island team needs to stay loose and remember that “if you end up losing 20-0, it’s not a problem.”

The only other team to beat Taiwan in a final was Trumbull, Conn., a 5-2 winner in 1989.

Taiwan will pitch left-hander Cheng Chi-hung, a 12-3 winner over the mostly American team from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Cranston is expected to start Tom Michael, who had both its losses in the preliminary round.

To beat Taiwan, “you have to have a lot of confidence in yourself,” Dominican Republic manager Cesar Nicolas Felipe said through an interpreter. “You have to fight hard in every inning, and on every pitch. Your team has to know that is not impossible for them to win.”

His slick-fielding team came closest of three international teams to beating Taiwan but still lost twice.

The Taiwan players have been together for three years at the Fushin school in the port of Kaohsiung and practice 10 hours a week, primarily on hitting. The Rhode Island team was put together in late June and appears to be much more carefree.

Hsieh Chin-hsiung, Taiwan’s centerfielder, will try for a Little League record seventh home run against Rhode Island.

He stands 4-foot-11, weighs 95 pounds and until recently would become too nervous to bat well because his heart beat too fast. Manager Ho Tung-yu moved him from eighth to fourth and fifth in lineup this week when he calmed down.

Ho attributes his team’s success to drills and hard work. Other managers have praised his team’s orderliness and discipline.

Chiu Chi-pin and Chen Chao-ping each have three home runs for Taiwan. Hsieh is batting .786 and Yang Chia-chen, who got two wins with his 78 mph fastball, is hitting .615.

Rhode Island’s Michael is hitting .462 with five runs, and leadoff hitter Craig Stinson is batting .444.

“I worked with these kids for three years, and I kept telling them they were in for big things,” Varrato said.