SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Jaymiell Martina shook hands and hugged with all his teammates, as manager Railison Gijsbertha came to take him out of the game.
Martina opened the tournament with a dominant pitching performance against Japan, and he one-upped it on a bigger stage, striking out 12 in 5⅔ innings to push Curaçao to a 4-0 win over Japan and clinch a spot in Sunday’s Little League World Series championship game at Lamade Stadium.
Martina nearly went the distance, allowing two hits against a Japan team that scored 27 runs in its last four games coming in.
Both hits came on the first two batters of the game. Martina recovered by striking out the next three.
“I started listening to the coach,” Martina said in English. “I was throwing different balls, and then I started listening and I did it.”
He recorded his last strikeout on his 87th pitch but had to be taken out because of hitting the threshold on his pitch count.
Closer Glendry Ryan needed four pitches to end the game on a groundout to shortstop.
“The people back there are very happy,” Gijsbertha said, per a translator. “Very happy that we got so far. We didn’t make it when we were involved in the World Cup, so we did it now.”
Curaçao took over by playing small ball with a three-run third that came on four Japan errors and only one hit.
Martina added an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth to make it 4-0.
It’s the fourth time in the last six tournaments that Curaçao will be playing for the world championship. The Caribbean island was back-to-back runner-ups in 2022 and 2023, and also made it in 2019.
The 2020 tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and no international teams participated in 2021.
Curaçao will be looking for its first championship since 2004 when it defeated Thousand Oaks, California.
“It’s very great for the people to have their voice here, too,” Gijsbertha said. “We know there’s a real history with baseball and the seriousness of baseball. I’m very happy we accomplished that.”
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
