Taiwan yesterday outlasted the Dominican Republic 9-5 in a rain-soaked slugfest in Tainan to take home the bronze medal in the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup.
Taiwan, who won the previous edition of the tournament in 2019, were eliminated from gold medal contention on Friday with a loss to the US, and needed a comeback win over South Korea a day later to reach yesterday’s third-place playoff.
The US and Venezuela were playing for gold in a game that started at 7:45pm. The US were leading 7-2 at the bottom of the fifth inning as of press time last night.
Photo: CNA
In what was to be a back-and-forth, offense-heavy bronze medal tussle, both teams scored in the first inning, while the Dominican Republic pulled ahead with a solo home run in the top of the second.
As a steady rain began to fall in the bottom half of the inning, Taiwan starting pitcher Wu Sheng-zhi belted a three-run homer to right-center field to put the hosts ahead 4-2.
The lead was to be short-lived. In the top half of the third, the Dominican Republic was again threatening with runners on first and third when the game was stopped due to a thunderstorm.
Photo: CNA
Play resumed after a two-hour delay, and Dominican third baseman Marlon Polanco quickly smashed a three-run home run to left field off Taiwan reliever Qiu Yun-zhou to put his team back in the lead at 5-4.
Taiwan held the momentum for much of the rest of the game, in part thanks to Qiu, who regained his footing to close out the game with three scoreless innings.
After tying the score with a solo homer in the bottom of the third, Taiwan again put two runners in position in the fourth, before driving them home on back-to-back singles and then scoring again on a bases loaded walk.
Taiwan added a final insurance run in the following inning, which ended up being unnecessary, as Qiu blanked the Dominican team in the top of the sixth to seal the victory 9-5.
This year’s WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup is the tournament’s sixth edition. Eleven teams competed in two groups in the opening round before Taiwan, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, South Korea, Venezuela and the US advancing to the Super Round.
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