Two teams are undefeated in the international bracket at the Little League World Series. They play each other Wednesday afternoon.
The winner goes directly to Saturday's international championship. The loser drops into elimination and plays Thursday.
How to watch
Curaçao vs. Nicaragua
Wednesday, Aug. 26 — 1 p.m. ET
Volunteer Stadium, South Williamsport, Pa.
ESPN, streaming on ESPN+ and the ESPN app
Little League doesn't release lineups before first pitch. Live play-by-play comes through GameChanger once the game starts.
Curaçao hasn't allowed a run
Two games. Thirteen innings. Zero.
Aug. 21 — Curaçao 6, Japan 0. Japan has eleven Little League World Series titles, more than any nation outside the United States. Pariba Little League shut them out in the opener.
Aug. 23 — Curaçao 1, South Korea 0. A combined shutout from Juriënsly De Windt and Giendry Ryan. One run was enough.
Manager Railison Gijsbertha carries fourteen players and nine of them pitch. Steven Felix is the tallest at 5-foot-10. Ruendrikson Leuteria is listed at 4-foot-11 and a half — and pitches. V-dien Ignacio Lindo at first base is the only left-hander on the roster. The Antonia brothers, Jaymiel and Raymiel, both throw.
This is also the first year Curaçao received a direct berth into the international bracket. No regional tournament, no play-in. Little League looked at two decades of results and decided the island didn't need to qualify anymore.
An island of 158,000
Curaçao sits 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela. About 158,000 people live there — fewer than Savannah, Georgia.
In July, Andruw Jones became the first player born in Curaçao elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. His plaque has hung in Cooperstown since the 26th, and it calls him a Curaçao native in bronze.
Five weeks later, twelve kids from Willemstad haven't allowed a run in Williamsport.
The island has also produced Andrelton Simmons, Kenley Jansen, Didi Gregorius, Jurickson Profar, Ozzie Albies and Xander Bogaerts. Willemstad won this whole tournament in 2004.
Per capita, no country on earth produces major league players at Curaçao's rate. Not the Dominican Republic. Not Venezuela. Nowhere in the United States.
The flag question
Here's what happens to these kids if they're good enough.
Curaçao is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands — its own prime minister, its own parliament, its own laws, but the Dutch king as head of state and Dutch passports for every citizen. That makes Curaçaoans eligible for the Netherlands national team, which is why Bogaerts, Profar, Simmons and Albies have all worn orange in the World Baseball Classic.
The Netherlands is ranked ninth in the world in baseball. A meaningful share of that ranking is Curaçaoan.
The island has started asking whether that should continue. Curaçao has explored forming its own independent team for the next World Baseball Classic, and it already fields its own squad at the Central American and Caribbean Games.
And in June it proved the idea works in another sport. Curaçao qualified for the FIFA World Cup — the smallest nation ever to reach one, supplanting Iceland — after its soccer federation shifted from local amateurs to professionals of Curaçaoan descent playing in Europe. Of the squad that opened against Germany in Houston, only one player, Tahith Chong, was actually born on the island.
Which is the whole tension in one roster. The soccer team qualified by reaching back to the diaspora. The baseball team at Williamsport this week is fourteen kids who all still live there.
Nobody has asked them to choose a flag yet. If any of them makes the majors, somebody will.
Nicaragua isn't a small story either
Ministerio Sobre Las Alas del Águila Little League comes from León, and they haven't lost either. They beat Mexico 8-4 on Sunday to stay unbeaten.
Nicaragua's professional league feeds the Caribbean Series. The country has produced Dennis Martínez, the first Nicaraguan in the majors and the man who threw a perfect game for Montreal in 1991.
Two countries that produce major leaguers far out of proportion to their size, playing for the right to represent the world on Saturday.
Full LLWS schedule, scores and every team's hometown here.
Roster and tournament information via Little League. World Cup details via The New York Times.