Nearly every other Little League team in tournament would’ve taught their runner to retreat to third on a play like that. Not Chinese Taipei, though.

Chen Shi Hong dashed home as soon as he saw the batted ball hit the dirt, Caraballo never checked the runner, who would’ve almost certainly been out at the plate, and Chinese went ahead 1-0 in what proved to be the only run as Chinese Taipei won the International championship game and advanced to the Little League World Series final for a second consecutive year.

“I teach the players whenever the ball hits the ground. It doesn’t matter (if the runner gets in a rundown) because they would chase back and forth and allow other people to gain another base,” Chinese Taipei manager Lai Min-Nan said. “So, (Chen Shi Hong) did exactly what I’ve been teaching. Everything was by the book.”

Chinese Taipei ace Lin Chin-Tse, who hit an incredible 82 miles per hour on the radar gun earlier in the tournament, was eligible to pitch on Saturday. But whether it was the plan all along or due to the fact that Chin-Tse had been battling a blister on his throwing hand, they went with Liu Wei Heng on the mound.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Asia-Pacific players make the traditional jog around the field with their International Championship banner after beating Caribbean 1-0 Saturday.

Heng, like seemingly every pitcher on the roster has in this tournament in which they’ve only surrendered three runs, was masterful. He successfully changed speeds to work off of a low-70s miles per hour fastball and kept Auba’s lineup off-balance all game.

When he got into trouble, Heng adeptly worked out of it. After Aruba got back-to-back one-out singles in the bottom of the first from Arnold Martha and Diliano Raven, he retired the next two via strikeouts to get out of the jam. And after a leadoff single in the second, he got the first out via strikeout and retired the side with a nifty 5-4-3 double play.

He allowed just one baserunner in the next three innings as he settled into the game against the bottom of an Aruba order that batted 14 players.

“I’m very happy with my performance today. Before I pitched, coach told me if I could go out there and pitch four innings, he’d be very happy,” Heng said. “That gave me confidence, and once I started doing a good job, I just wanted to take the opportunity. I felt like I had control. Every time the inning ended, coach asked ‘can you go one more?’ and I said ‘no problem, I’d love to.'”

Chen Shi-Hong reached base in the third inning via a walk on a 3-2 pitch that just missed the strike zone and advanced to second on a passed ball. Then Ho Fu-Yi hit a single, setting up the aforementioned Zaman grounder to short. The throw by Carabello was errant, leaving Chinese Taipei with second and third and no outs having just taken a 1-0 lead. But Aruba starter Jayderick Wederfoor worked out of it to keep the game within reach.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent The Asia-Pacific team and dignitaries lines up with their International Championship banner after beating Caribbean 1-0 Saturday.

Aruba had a golden chance to tie, and potentially win, the game in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Emerson Mercado led off the inning with a line-drive to right field, but Liu Wei-Heng was able to get a strikeout for the first out. Then after Liu Wei-Heng fell behind 2-0 in the count to Caraballo, Chinese Taipei decided to switch pitchers in the middle of the at-bat. Chen Qi-Sheng came in and threw two consecutive balls to walk the batter, before a sacrifice bunt by Zaylon Dreischor put the tying run at third base and the winning run at second base.

Chen Qi-Sheng buckled down and struck out Prinze Kingsale on three pitches to capture the International championship.

With a win on Sunday, Chinese Taipei will look to capture their 18th Little League World Series title on Sunday against Las Vegas, Nevada, which would be their first LLWS championship since 1996.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Asia-Pacific third baseman Chang Chn-Po fields a ground ball for an out at first base in the fifth inning.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Asia-Pacific third baseman Chang Chun-Po comes up short on a line drive for a single by Caribbean's Arnold Gismar Martha in the first inning.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Asia-Pacific starting pitcher Liu Wei-Heng.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Asia-Pacific players make the traditional jog around the field with their International Championship banner after beating Caribbean 1-0 Saturday.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Caribbean's Zylon Dreischor lays down a bunt in an attempt to advance runners to scoring positions in the sixth inning.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Asia-Pacific relief pitcher Chen Qi-Sheng

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Asia-Pacific Chen Shi-Hong scores the only run of the game on a single by Muhammad Zaman in the second inning.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Asia-Pacific third baseman Chang Chun-Po fields a ground ball for a force at second base in the first inning.