Japan defeated Ohio 3-2 in the third-place game at the Little League World Series on Sunday morning, Aug. 30, 2026, closing out every game at Howard J. Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania except the championship. Henderson, Nevada and Willemstad, Curacao were still playing for the world championship at the same stadium Sunday afternoon, with the game airing on ABC.
Key facts
- Japan beat Ohio 3-2 in Sunday morning’s third-place game at Howard J. Lamade Stadium
- Nevada (Henderson) and Curacao (Willemstad) meet for the championship at 3 p.m. ET Sunday on ABC
- Nevada beat Ohio 12-2 in Saturday’s U.S. championship game, which ended after five innings under the mercy rule
- Curacao beat Japan 4-0 in Saturday’s international championship game; pitcher Jaymiell Martina struck out 12 batters
- The tournament opened Aug. 19 with 20 teams, 10 from the U.S. and 10 from abroad
- Nevada is the reigning U.S. champion but lost the 2025 world final to Chinese Taipei
How Nevada and Curacao got here
Both finalists arrived by winning their respective championship games on Saturday, Aug. 29. Nevada beat Ohio 12-2; the game ended after five innings under Little League’s mercy rule, giving Henderson its second straight U.S. title. Curacao’s path looked different: Willemstad beat Tokyo, Japan, 4-0, to win the international championship, with pitcher Jaymiell Martina striking out 12 of the batters he faced over 5.2 innings.
Those results set up Sunday’s bracket: the two teams that lost Saturday, Ohio and Japan, played each other Sunday morning for third place, while Nevada and Curacao moved on to face each other for the title.
A Nevada player’s RBI hit
One storyline out of Nevada’s U.S. championship win came from 12-year-old Carsynn Meyer, an outfielder and catcher for the Henderson team, who drove in a run with an RBI single in the 12-2 win over Ohio — a hit that made her the 13th girl in LLWS history to record one. Little League’s own coverage lists her as one of two girls playing on U.S. teams in this year’s tournament, alongside Kinley Rasmus of Alabama, and identifies her separately as the 26th girl to play in the Little League World Series since it began in 1947.
Watching the championship
The championship game between Nevada and Curacao was scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday at Howard J. Lamade Stadium. The third-place game between Japan and Ohio was played at 10 a.m. ET and shown on ESPN. As of August 30, 2026, the championship had not been reported final by Little League’s own website or by ESPN — check either for the final score once the game wraps up.
The bigger picture
This year’s tournament opened Aug. 19 with 20 teams, 10 from the U.S. and 10 from abroad, in a modified double-elimination bracket that Sunday’s championship now closes out. For Nevada, it’s a rematch of sorts: the team won the U.S. title last year too, only to lose the 2025 world final to Chinese Taipei. Sunday’s game decides whether Henderson gets another shot at that trophy, or whether Curacao takes it home instead.