Chinese Taipei claim historic WBSC Baseball5 World Cup bronze medal

Chinese Taipei claimed the first ever WBSC Baseball5 World Cup medal by beating Venezuela 2-0 (9-2; 2-0) in a gripping WBSC Baseball5 World Cup 2022 bronze medal game at El Zocalo in Mexico City on Saturday.

Roared on by a passionate crowd, both teams turned on the skill and entertainment with stunning balls skills, speed and hand eye coordination. In one corner were Venezuela fans and in the other Chinese Taipei and when the bell rang, the players turned on a great show.

Venezuela won this encounter during the Opening Round on Day Two of the tournament 2-1 (2-0; 2-4; 5-3) but Chinese Taipei had superior individual numbers going into the game such as runs scored 93 to 66 but not in terms of number of games won (TPE 5 out of 8, VEN 6 out of 8) and this contest shaped as being another thriller.

Yu-Hao Tumade it on base with the first play of the game, moving to second after a wildthrow to first base from Yohelis Colina.

Chi-Ting-Hua
Shih then brought Tu and Chun Chiu home and Chinese Taipei were leading 2-0with no outs after the first inning. Venezuela tightened up their defence tofinish the inning before Esquia Rengel scored for Venezuela in the bottom ofthe second thanks to a lovely drop shot to tie the game at 2-1. She then producedagain with a great hit from Rengel scoring Alvaro Gil to tie the game at 2-2.

The teamswere hard to separate before Tu scored in the top of the fourth thanks to aShih triple before Shih scored himself to give Chinese Taipei the lead again at4-2. Then Chinese Taipei turned it on in the fifth inning with bases loaded, asShih, Chi Lin, Chiu and Chieh-Yu Lin all scoring to extend the lead to 8-4before Shih scored again to put the icing on the cake, taking the first match9-2.

The secondmatch started just as intensely with great defence from both sides but ChineseTaipei started to edge ahead thanks to Chieh-Yu Lin and Tu scoring in the topof third to lead 2-0. Venezuela tried to get back in the game but a superbthrow from Chieh-Yu Lin at second base to Shih at home plate to tag Luis Marquesbasically deflated Venezuela’s efforts. Even the crowd were silenced with thegreat defensive play from the Asian champions.

With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Venezuela started to get a little momentum with two runs on before Valerie Torres was out at first by Chi Lin to spark massive celebrations.