Little League World Series begins, but there's already been plenty of drama

The road to Williamsport was filled with more drama than usual for a couple Little League World Series participants this year, including a Venezuelan team that needed visa exemptions to make the trip and an American club that narrowly knocked off a defending champ.

Baseball’s preeminent youth baseball tournament resumes Wednesday in central Pennsylvania.

Cardenales Little League from Barquimesto, Venezuela, will represent Latin America for the second straight year, but this time the team required a special exemption from President Donald Trump’s travel ban. The team only learned of the exemption less than a week before its opening game Wednesday at 1 p.m. against Puerto Rico.

This year’s Cardenales team has a different roster and coaching staff than the 2024 group. Last year’s team survived two rounds in the elimination bracket to advance to the international final. It lost 4-1 to Taiwan but beat Texas for third place.

Venezuela only has two Little League World Series titles, the last 25 years ago.

Defending champion Lake Mary was one out away from making its return to central Pennsylvania, but there will be a different team representing the Southeast Region this year: South Carolina’s Irmo Little League.

In the regional final, Irmo trailed 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth — the last inning in Little League ball — with the bottom of their lineup headed to the plate and the goal of getting Joe Giulietti, the team’s best hitter, to bat.

Lake Mary intentionally walked him with the bases loaded to make the score 4-2. Brady Westbrooks was up next and, down to his last strike, he found the fastball he was looking for, hammering a three-run double.

Lake Mary previously defeated Irmo 14-0, and before the regional final, Bogan told his players they needed to believe they were “going to shock the Little League baseball world.”

Irmo is only the fourth South Carolina team, and second since 1950, to play in South Williamsport. It’ll play Braintree American Little League, the Massachusetts team representing the New England region, on Thursday.

Taiwan’s 17 Little League World Series championships are the most by any country other than the United States, which always gets a team in the championship because of the way the LLWS brackets are set up.

But it has been nearly 30 years since Taiwan won its most recent title in 1996.

Now, Lai is back with the Tung-Yuan Little League team after defeating South Korea in the Asia-Pacific regional final. The 2025 LLWS marks Taiwan’s fourth consecutive and 33rd appearance in tournament history, and its first game will be against Mexico on Thursday.

Taiwan also boasts five pitchers capable of reaching over 70 mph and Chin-Tse Lin throws at 80 mph, which looks much faster to the hitter because of how close the mound is to home plate. There are pitch count rules in Little League, requiring a certain amount of days rest depending on how many pitches a player throws.

The Kuei-Shan Little League team from Taoyuan reached the final of the international bracket the past two years but wasn’t able to win it all. Lai hopes for a different result for Tung-Yuan — he wants to bring Taiwan that 18th championship.



(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)