TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan won bronze in the first ever Baseball5 World Cup that finished in Mexico City on Saturday (Nov. 12).

In their final game, Taiwan defeated Venezuela in two matches to win third place in the tournament. In the tournament preliminaries, Taiwan won four out of the five games, which allowed them to advance to the Super Round.



Unfortunately, Taiwan lost to Cuba in the Super Round and played against Venezuela, who were defeated by Japan, for third place. Cuba went on to defeat Japan in the final to become the first World Cup champions in Baseball5.

In August 2022, the Taiwanese team, led by coach Kuo Yong-chi (郭勇志), won the inaugural Asia Cup held in Malaysia. Their win against Japan in that tournament allowed them to advance to the World Cup in Mexico.

Baseball5 is a new urban sport that developed in Central America. The rules are similar to baseball, but the sport requires only a small rubber ball to play. Men and women play together on teams of five, hence the name Baseball5.

The global sport is organized under the authority of the World Baseball Softball Confederation.

This has been an exceptional year for Taiwan’s international showing in WBSC events, placing in the top three in every global WBSC tournament in 2022.

In addition to the Baseball5 team placing third in the World Cup this week, Taiwan also placed third in the U-12 Baseball World Cup held in Tainan this past August. Then, in early September, Taiwan also won third place in the U-15 Baseball World Cup, which was also held in Mexico.

In mid-September, Taiwan won second place in the U-18 Baseball World Cup held in the U.S. and came in third place in the U-23 Baseball World Cup, which was held in Taiwan in October.