Taiwan beats Mexico to win Pony World Series

台灣擊敗墨西哥贏得小馬世界錦標賽

Taiwan takes 11th Pony League World Series championship


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The New Taipei City team defeated Monterrey, Mexico 4-1 to win the Pony League World Series on Wednesday (Aug. 17).

This marks the 11th time a team from Taiwan has won the flagship tournament of PONY Baseball and Softball, second only to California, which has won 22. This is the third time a team from New Taipei City has taken the championship, with the previous two wins coming in 2016 and 2018, when it was called Taipei County. The most recent win by a Taiwanese team was in 2019, when Taipei City took the top spot.

The team is mainly composed of players from New Taipei Municipal Er Chong Junior High School and New Taipei Municipal Xintai Junior High School, who took part in the Pony category for competitors aged 13-14. The tournament was held in Washington, Pennsylvania with a total of 10 teams participating under a double-elimination system.

New Taipei City's road to victory included some adversity with a 4-2 loss to Johnstown, Pennsylvania on Monday (Aug. 15). However, due to the double-elimination format, New Taipei still had a shot as long as it won the rest of its games.

The team bounced back with a 12-0 thrashing of Bay County, Michigan on Tuesday (Aug. 16). Later that afternoon, New Taipei exacted revenge when it beat Johnstown 7-3 and dominated the rival again on Wednesday (Aug. 17) with a score of 6-1.

Going into the championship game, New Taipei faced a tough opponent in Monterrey, as it was the only team that had gone undefeated so far in the tournament. It also had a potent offense, having scored 10 runs or more in its last three games.

The first three innings were scoreless, but in the top of the 4th inning, New Taipei went on a tear and scored three runs. They scored again in the top of the fifth inning.

Monterrey was not able to get on the board until the bottom of the fifth, when it scored one run. However, New Taipei's defense was too strong and prevented Monterrey from scoring again, clinching the victory for Taiwan.