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Curacao holds Japan to two singles in 4-0 win to reach World Series championship game

By From staff reports 4 min read

Joto Little League started Saturday's International championship game at Lamade Stadium strong and with some confidence.

Tensei Yazawa opened with a line-drive single to left field. A batter later, Yunosuke Yabe singled on a fly ball to right field. It put two runners on base to start the top of the first inning for Tokyo, Japan against Jaymiell Martina, a talented pitcher for the all-stars from Pariba Little League of Willemstad, Curacao.

But those would be the only hits Japan would collect.

Martina would proceed to dominate on the mound and lift Curacao to a 4-0 win against Japan, ending Japan's outstanding run through the elimination bracket and send Curacao to Sunday's Little League World Series championship game at 3 p.m. at Lamade Stadium.

Martina was nothing shy of brilliant. He threw 5 2/3 innings with two first-inning singles allowed, just two walks and struck out 12. He threw 88 pitches before being removed as Giendry Ryan came in to close out the game with one pitcher faced to end the game.

Yunosuke Yabe threw a complete game for Japan with five innings thrown on 81 pitches, striking out six and limiting a talented Curacao team to just four hits.

Japan and Curacao remained scoreless through the first two innings before Curacao broke the tie in the bottom of the third inning thanks to some errors.

Jaymiel Antonia reached on a dropped third strike to start the third before he reached third after a fielder's choice by Nathanael Jansen. An error would allow Antonia to score and brought Jansen to second.

Ruendrikson Ieuteria had a sacrifice bunt to move Jansen to third and a bunt by Jordan Richards and ensuing error brought Jansen in for a 2-0 lead. Another error would allow Juriensly De Windt to reach base after a bunt and allowed Richards to score.

Those costly third-inning errors gave Curacao a 3-0 lead and Japan was never able to claw back against a dominant Martina arm.

Curacao would score again in the bottom of the fourth to extend the lead to 4-0.

Ryan singled to second base to get on to open the bottom of the inning before a sacrifice bunt and strikeout put two outs on the board with Ryan in scoring position at second.

Martina would deliver a huge double on a ground ball to center to bring in Ryan and make it a 4-0 lead.

After Japan had two hits in the first inning, Martina and Curacao would proceed to let allow much to happen from there.

Japan went three up, three down in the second inning with a strikeout, ground out and pop fly to short. Three strikeouts by Martina had another 1-2-3 inning in the third.

In the fourth, Japan drew a walk when Yazawa walked with one out, but a strikeout and fly to second ended the fourth inning with Yazawa stranded on base.

Japan suffered a 1-2-3 fifth inning.

In Japan's final chance in the sixth inning to rally, but weren't able to get the key hits to connect.

Shinnosuke Ijima grounded out to open the sixth inning before Hiroto Yokote was hit by a pitch to get on base. But from there, Martina struck out Sou Koyama and a fielder's choice ended the game to seal Curacao's win.

Offensively, Ryan went 1 for 2 with a run for Curacao, V-dien Ignacio Lindo went 1 for 1, Martina was 1 for 2 with a double and RBI and Jansen was 1 for 2 with a run scored. Japan ended with Yazawa going 1 for 1 with a walk, Yabe going 1 for 2 and Kei Kawanishi drawing a walk.

It denied Japan a chance to reach the World Series for the first time since 2019.

This is Willemstad, Curacao's third trip to the World Series championship game since 2019 as the country lost the World Series final in 2019 (vs. Louisiana, 8-0), 2022 (vs. Hawaii, 13-3, 4 inn.) and 2023 (vs. California, 6-4).

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