China stun Nicaragua, advance to Bronze Medal Game

World No. 24 China made history, reaching the Medal Round of the first Baseball World Cup in which they participated. China beat No. 17 Nicaragua, 4-0, playing aggressive baseball behind masterful starting pitcher Wei Zhao, who went the distance, allowing only five hits.

China advanced to the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cuo 2024 Bronze Medal game as the number three seed. Nicaragua finished fourth. Both teams took advantage of Korea's defeat against Japan.

China wasted no time in getting to right-hander Samuel Guadamuz. The Nicaraguan starter walked leadoff hitter Xudong Zhu who sprinted all the way to third on a sacrifice bunt.Yuyang Li singled to the first pitch he saw, putting China ahead.

Yi Zhou followed with another single and Wentao Zhang added a run with a two-out RBI single, bringing Zhou to third. Nicaragua relieved Guadamuz with lefty Juan Gaytan to end the at-bat.

Gaytan allowed back-to-back walks to lead off the third and Nicaragua sent Carlos Rodriguez to the hill. The left-hander recorded the first out of the inning when he picked the runner off second base. Nicaragua needed three pitchers to get the first seven outs of the night.

With two outs, Yuyang Li stole second to advance to scoring position. Aiqi Zhang kept the at-bat alive by beating Rodriguez to the first base bag on a swinging bunt. Yuyang Li advanced to third on the play. Rodriguez got out of the inning with a groundout.

Nicaragua tried some aggressive base running in the botton of the third Derek Loasiga reached on a two-out defensive error advanced to third when Odlanyer Matamoros singled to left field. Matamoros tried to reach second but became the second out when he overslid the bag.

China added two runs in the top of the sixth. Mingxin Zhang reached on a one-out single. He ran into a force out on Shuai Wang's grounder, but Nicaragua overthrew to first, trying to complete a double play and allowed Wang to second. Qirui Wu was all over the first pitch he saw and hammered it to dead centre for an RBI triple.

Nicaragua called Bryan Torres from the bullpen and China scored their fourth run when speedy leadoff hitter Xudong Zhu bunted for the hit.

Left-hander Wei Zhao left Nicaragua with no chance. He used 75 pitches (53 for strikes) to navigate through the distance, allowing only five hits.