World No. 1 Chinese Taipei, No. 12 Mexico, No. 24 Türkiye and China joined France, ranked second in the world, and Cuba, 6th, in the Super Round of the WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup in Ankara, Türkiye.
After France and Cuba had already booked their spots on Wednesday, it was left to the final day of the Opening Round to determine which four teams would join them.
The morning session of Day 3 started with two intense games between China and home team Türkiye followed by Chinese Taipei and Korea. China and Türkiye were the first ones to step on the field and ended a classic game after two extra innings in favour of Türkiye - 10-9* (7 innings) and 8-6.
‘’I'm really happy, we will go to the Super Round,” said Türkiye’s Ela Akturk. “We aim for first place with great excitement. Being strong means team spirit for me. It's the team spirit that ties us together. We cover each other's gaps. We do not discriminate between boys and girls. We are a team.’’
On field two saw a fantastic Asian matchup between Korea and Chinese Taipei with Chinese Taipei completing a come-from-behind win in a thriller 1-2, 7-0, 4-3.
In the game between the two winless teams in Group A, Zambia and Malaysia played out a thriller before Zambia won 2-3, 3-1, 9-7.
Meanwhile, Mexico claimed a 4-3, 7-1 win over Ghana before upsetting world No 1 Chinese Taipei 6-4, 7-1 to book their ticket for the Super Round.
France claimed their fifth win from as many games with a 7-2, 3-0 win over winless Australia while China beat Tunisia in another Group A thriller 2-5, 4-1, 8-7* (2 extra innings).
Ghana claimed their second win of the tournament, beating Korea 5-2, 8-6 before Cuba claimed their fifth win of the tournament beating 8-0, 12-0
Türkiye claimed their spot in the Super Round by winning the last Opening Round game against Tunisia 5-1, 2-0. The loss saw Tunisia, with two wins and three defeats, miss out on the Super Round.
China will take on Chinese Taipei in the first Super Round game starting at 10:00 local time while Malaysia and Australia kick off the Placement Round at 09:30.
