Chinese Taipei overcame a four-run deficit to claim the bronze medal at the 2024 WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup. A four-run rally in the sixth inning gave Chinese Taipei a one-run lead, enough to claim their fifth bronze medal in the event’s history, the third in a row. Chinese Taipei won their 17th bronze medal at the WBSC Baseball World Cup across all age groups.

For Nicaragua, this is their best result in the tournament, their second participation. In 2012, their first ever tournament, they finished sixth.

Chih-Hao Yang kept his team in the game by coming to the mound in the fifth inning and preventing Nicaragua from scoring for 2.2 innings to earn the win, striking out once but allowing two hits.

“I just thought about throwing strikes and giving my teammates a chance to make the plays,” Chih-Hao Yang said. “I’m very confident in my defense and just tried to do my best to help the team. I tried to attack with my breaking balls first to keep them off balance, then mix up my pitches and finally use my fastball.”

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Nicaragua took the lead in the game. In the first inning, the Central American team scored twice to take a two-run lead. Johan Saravia hit a flat fly ball to center field for a single and immediately scored on a triple by Luis Garcia into the right-center gap. He then scored on a long fly ball to left field by Johacner Gutierrez.

In the second half of the first inning, Chinese Taipei had all bases loaded but could not score. Zi-Jin Su reached first base on a fielding error and Meza walked Jen-Yu Liu and Yu-Chia Ma, putting three runners on base and two outs. However, the Nicaraguan starter forced Cheng-Yu Shih into a fly ball to left field, ending the inning.

Nicaragua added another in the second, with Jean Catin getting on base with a leadoff single to score the game’s third run. With one out on the board, Enyel Gonzalez hit an RBI single to right field to bring Catin home.

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

Chinese Taipei cut the deficit to one run in the third inning. Yu-Chieh Hsu worked a walk, stole second base and moved to third on an error. He then scored on a grounder to shortstop. Shih-Yao Huang worked a walk and that was it for Kevin Meza, who did not allow a single hit in 2.2 innings. He was replaced by Josue Ramos, who allowed a hit to put runners on the corners and scored on a stolen base play at second base.

In the third inning, however, Nicaragua managed a three-run rally to extend its lead to 6-2. An RBI double by Berman Moreno with one out and a runner on first base brought Nicaragua’s fourth run of the game, then scored on a single by Eddy Coronado. The final run of the inning came on a grounder with the bases loaded to shortstop Zi-Jin Su, who was attempting to make a 6-4-3 double play, but the runner beat the throw to first base, allowing a run from third base.

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

One inning later, the Asian team loaded the bases again with three consecutive singles and no outs. Nicaragua manager Sandy Moreno pulled Josue Ramos from the game and replaced him with Christian Alvarez, but Yu-Chieh Hsu greeted him with an RBI single, forcing another pitcher change. Enyel Gonzalez tried to avoid further 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 brought the decisive run for Chinese Taipei.