World No. 5 Chinese Taipei claimed the U-15 Asian Baseball Championship defeating No. 1 Japan, 6-4, in the final game of the tournament played in Weihai, China. Both teams advanced to next year’s WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup. No. 4 Korea topped hosts and No. 23 China for the bronze medal game.
Japan and Chinese Taipei swept Groups A and B respectively and advanced to the Super Round undefeated. They locked horns on Friday’s Super Round opener, with the Japanese squad prevailing 6-5.
However, in the final Chinese Taipei bounced back to win the title, propelled by a four-run fifth inning and a 4.1-inning relief appearance by Shao-Chi Fang, who gave up one hit and two runs with four strikeouts and was named MVP of the tournament.
Previously, Korea secured the bronze medal with a 2-1 victory over China.
Chinese Taipei and Japan join No. 7 Netherlands and No. 12 Italy as the only qualified teams for next year’s WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup, with the exact dates and host still to be announced.
Final standings
- Chinese Taipei
- Japan
- Korea
- China
- Philippines
- Hong kong, China
- Sri Lanka
- Pakistan
You can check the scores, stats and final standings on WBSC Asia website.
