Taiwan routed Venezuela on Saturday to win the bronze medal at the inaugural WBSC Baseball5 World Cup in Mexico City.
The win for Taiwan came after a 1-2 drubbing on Wednesday at the hands of the South American powerhouse, which eventually led to another match-up between them in the best-of-three (BO3) third-place playoffs.
After suffering a string of losses in the tournament, Taiwan bounced back Saturday with a 9-2 and 2-0 victory against Venezuela, to bag the bronze medal.
Competing under the name Chinese Taipei, the team entered the Super and Placement rounds as a No. 2 seed and scored only one win in those rounds — against Mexico — before losing to Japan on Friday and to Cuba early Saturday.
In the final of the tournament, Cuba defeated Japan to win the championship.
Baseball5, a new and modified street version of the game, features five-member teams and five-inning games on a smaller diamond, on which the players put the rubber ball into play by hitting it with their bare hands.
The Taiwan team, led by former professional baseball player Kuo Yung-chih (郭勇志), punched its ticket for the Baseball5 World Cup in Mexico in August, when it won the first Baseball5 Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur.
Asia Cup runner-up Japan and the third-place winner South Korea also qualified for the World Cup, according to the rules, while the fourth-place team Hong Kong was selected by the WBSC to replace the Oceania representative Australia at the Baseball5 World Cup, for an unspecified reason.
The inaugural Baseball5 World Cup had 12 teams from around the world, including Tunisia, Kenya, South Africa, Lithuania, and France.
According to the WBSC website, the international calendar includes the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup on even years and the WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup on odd years.
Meanwhile, the 2025 edition of the Baseball5 World Cup will serve as a qualifier for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, where Baseball5 will debut as an official medal sport, the WBSC said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel