Taiwan held Florida off the scoreboard for 5 2/3 innings in the Little League World Series championship game on Sunday.

But Florida forced the game into extra innings, despite being down to one out, but still winning 2-1 in the eighth inning on a chaotic walk-off bunt.

Beginning in the eighth inning after six innings of regulation time, the LLWS offense begins the inning with a runner on second base. With the score tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the eighth, Florida’s Hunter Alexander laid down a leadoff bunt in an attempt to advance the runner to third. But no one covered first base on the throw, allowing the winning run to score as the ball bounced in the outfield.

The victory for the team from the Orlando suburb of Lake Mary is the first in nine trips to a LLWS final by teams from Florida. It denied Taiwan its 18th LLWS and what would have been its first since 1996.

It was a painful way to lose for Taiwan after entering the finals with a 5-0 record in LLWS play. Taiwanese players were in tears on the field at the end of the match. Players from both teams exchanged hugs and shook hands before leaving the field.

Taiwan scores first, suffocates Florida early

Taiwan scored in the first inning after Florida pitcher Jacob Bibaud walked the leadoffs to start the game. Hu Yen-Chun hit Chiu Wei-Che on a two-out single that went through the left side of the infield to give Taiwan a 1-0 lead.

Taiwan loaded the bases with two outs on a hit-by-pitch by Bibaud, but Florida came out of the inning allowing just one run. From there, a series of missed opportunities by Florida’s offense kept it off the board for most of regulation time.

Florida repeatedly lets runners down

Taiwan starting pitcher Ciou Zhi-Kai walked twice with two outs in the bottom of the first, but he struck out DeMarco Mieses to end the inning without allowing a run.

After a scoreless top of the second, Florida got its best early scoring chance without a hit. Zhi-Kai issued two walks and a hit-by-pitch to load the bases for Florida with no outs. But he forced a double play on a hard ball to third that scored no runs and ended the inning with a strikeout.

Florida then stranded runners on first and second with one out in the third. It stranded a runner on third in the fourth.

Taiwan misses scoring chance with bases loaded

The fifth inning was Florida’s turn to get out of a tight spot. Lathan Norton replaced Bibaud on the mound after a double put Taiwanese runners on second and third with one out. Norton then walked the first batter he faced, loading the bases. But he caused consecutive flyouts to left field to end the inning and keep Florida within a 1-0 deficit.

Florida failed to capitalize in the final inning. Wei-Che replaced Zhi-Kai on the mound and eventually struck out Hunter Alexander for an inning-ending run, leaving a Florida runner on second base.

A scoreless top of the sixth inning gave Florida a chance to tie the game and go to extra innings. Chase Anderson reached on a leadoff hit-by-pitch by Wei-Che to put the tying run on first.

Wei-Che then threw a two-out walk to put runners on first and second, allowing Mieses to pull off a late-inning heroics. He hit a 2-0 sacrifice into shallow left field, allowing Anderson to score from second base. Taiwan then secured the third out of the sixth to send the game into extra innings.

Taiwan had a chance to take the lead in the seventh inning, but reliever Lathan Norton got out of the inning with an inning-ending pop-up, leaving Taiwan runners on first and second base.

Florida had a chance to win in 7th place

Then, in the seventh inning, Florida saw another scoring opportunity go to waste. With a runner on first and two outs, Christopher Chikodroff hit a line drive that rolled into the left corner. Luis Calo had a chance to score from first base, but Florida manager Jonathan Anderson stopped him at third base.

The third baseman botched the cutoff throw, but Calo had already returned to third after initially rounding home. Taiwan then secured an inning-ending strikeout to send the game to the eighth, where the offense opens the inning with a runner on second base.

Taiwan failed to score in the top half of the inning, allowing Florida to pull off a walk-off win in the bottom half of the inning.

Taiwan’s 17 LLWS titles coming into Sunday were the most of any international team. But they haven’t won a championship since 1996. Japan has since taken over as the dominant international program with eight LLWS titles since Taiwan’s last, for a total of 11.

Florida snapped a streak of eight consecutive trips to the title game without a win, the longest ever for an American team. It fought through the losers bracket to get there after losing its third game of the tournament. From there, it won five straight elimination games, including Sunday’s championship.