Chinese Tapiei come from behind, clinch U-15 Baseball World Cup bronze medal

Chinese Taipei recovered from a four-run deficit to claim the bronze medal at the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup. A four-run rally in the bottom of the sixth secured for Chinese Taipei a one-run lead, enough to clinch their fifth bronze medal in the history of the event, the third in a row. Chinese Taipei won their 17th WBSC Baseball World Cup bronze medal across all age categories.

For Nicaragua, it is their best finish in the tournament, in their second appearance. Previously they finished sixth in 2012, in their first-ever tournament.

Chih-Hao Yang kept his team in the game, taking the mound in the fifth inning and keeping Nicaragua from scoring for 2.2 innings, earning the win. He struck out one, while allowing two hits. 

"I was only thinking to pitch strikes and give my teammates the chance to make the plays," said Chih-Hao Yang. "I trust a lot on my defence, and I only tried to do my best to help the team. I tried to attack first with my breaking balls, to keep them off balance, then mix my pitches and finally to use my fastball."

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Nicaragua jumped ahead in the game. In their first at bat, the Central American squad scored twice to get the two-run lead. Johan Saravia hit a shallow fly ball to center field for a single, and immediately scored on a triple to the righ center gap from Luis Garcia. He then scored on a long fly ball to left field by Johacner Gutierrez.

In the bottom of the first inning, Chinese Taipei loaded the bases but couldn't cash in. Zi-Jin Su reached on a fielding error, and Meza walked Jen-Yu Liu and Yu-Chia Ma to put three runners on, and two outs. However, the Nicaraguan started forced Cheng-Yu Shih to a fly ball to left field to end the inning. 

Nicaragua added on in the top of the second, with Jean Catin, who hit a lead-off single to get on base, scoring the third run of the game. With one out in the board, Enyel Gonzalez hit an RBI single to right field to plate Catin.

In the bottom of the third, Nicaragua again put two runners in scoring position, with a single and a throwing error, leaving runners in second and third. However, Chinese Taipei shortstop Zi-Jin Su made a nice play behind second base to retire the inning.

Chinese Taipei reduced the deficit to one run in the bottom of the third. Yu-Chieh Hsu walked, stole second base and moved to third on an error. He then scored on a grounder to short stop. Shih-Yao Huang walked, and that was all for Kevin Meza, who didn't allow a hit in 2.2 innings. He was replaced by Josue Ramos, who gave up a hit to put runners in the corners, and scored on a stolen base play at second base.

However, in the top of the third Nicaragua mounted a three-run rally to extend their lead to 6-2. A one-out RBI double by Berman Moreno, with a runner on first, produced Nicaragua's fourth run of the game. He then scored on a single by Eddy Coronado. The last run of the inning came on a bases-loaded grounder to shortstop Zi-Jin Su, who tried to turn a 6-4-3 double play but the runner beat the throw at first. allowing a run to score from third.

For the second time in the game Chinese Taipei left the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, however this time they scored once on a run-scoring single by Shih-Cheng Lo in shallow right field. With the bases loaded and two outs, Cheng-Yu Shih grounded to second base to finish the inning.

One inning later, the Asian squad loaded the bases again with three consecutive singles and no outs. Nicaragua's manager Sandy Moreno pulled Josue Ramos and replaced him with Christian Alvarez, but Yu-Chieh Hsu welcomed him with an RBI single, forcing another pitching change. Enyel Gonzalez tried to avoid more damage, but Zi-Jin Su tied the game with a two RBI single down the left field line. A grounder to second base by Jun-Hao Yang plated the go-ahead run for Chinese Taipei.