SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — After leading his Florida team to the semifinals of the Little League World Series, Teraj Alexander was asked about a rematch Saturday against Texas, the only team to defeat the Southeast Region representative.

“Time for revenge,” said Teraj.

Maybe – but it won’t be easy. Texas is undefeated and has done well to get there.

In the international semifinal, which will be played on Saturday, Taiwan will face Venezuela. Taiwan has scored 32 runs in four matches, all of which have been victories.

Teraj made his first tournament appearance on the mound in Thursday’s elimination game against Nevada, recording five strikeouts in 3⅔ innings and contributing to Florida’s 6-3 victory.

Manager Jonathan Anderson previously pointed to Teraj’s ability in both directions; Teraj leads the team with a tournament batting average of .400 and has only one strikeout.

“Teraj filled the zone,” Anderson said. “He has that wicked shot – I think that’s special.”

Teraj was one of three Florida pitchers to play Thursday, as Lanthan Norton started the game, relieving JJ Feliciano Teraj. In total, seven pitchers were on the mound for Florida in the LLWS. They combined for a 1.88 ERA.

Since Monday, Florida has played four games in a row and won all of them.

Now the focus turns back to Texas. In that loss, Florida — based in Lake Mary, a city in the greater Orlando area — couldn’t bring its bats to life, as Texas pitcher Julian Hurst struck out 10 batters and lost a complete game.

“We’re ready to get Julian back and see what we can do,” Anderson said.

After Texas’ victory over Florida, 71.79% of Julian’s throws were strikes – a mark he described as his all-time high.

“I’m just going to keep focusing on strikes,” Julian said.

Overall, Julian pitched 10 innings and had 20 strikeouts. He did not play in Wednesday’s game, but still scored two of his club’s five runs in a 5-2 win over Nevada.

Texas, the Southwest Regional representative from Boerne, near San Antonio, comes into Saturday well rested, having won 3-0 and not played back-to-back games. The team is also strong, with a team batting average of .324.

On the international side of the tournament, Taiwan represents the Asia-Pacific region and has had little trouble with the competition so far. A championship title would be particularly significant for Taiwan: the same club finished third in the tournament last season despite all of its players being new, and the country has not won an LLWS championship since 1996 despite dominating for three decades.

In the first three games, Taiwan scored eight, eleven and ten runs. The team also posted two shutouts and had two pitchers with double-digit strikeouts throughout the tournament.

Lai Cheng-Xi leads the way with 19 strikeouts, while Ciou Shi-Kai has 10.

Venezuela fought back to take revenge on Japan after losing its second game of the tournament 2-1 to the Japanese team.

The Taiwanese team based in Taoyuan City will be forced to contain Willians Mora, who has four doubles and five runs with a .600 batting average.

The team from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, can also make all the pitching moves they want, as they have five pitchers who have pitched at least three innings in the LLWS.

The winners of the semifinals will play for the tournament championship on Sunday afternoon.