Nicaragua outscore Korea, finish Opening Round undefeated
World No. 17 Nicaragua completed an undefeated run in the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2024 Group B, defeating No. 6 Korea 7-1.
Nicaragua scored two runs on Korea's starter Hyungowon Lim in the first and dominated through the rest of the game. Right-hander Stanling Orozco and two relievers limited Korea to five hits.
Right-hander Hyung-Won Lim struck out the first batter he saw, then lived a nightmare. Although he threw only strikes, Odlanyer Matamoros and Edmerson Castro got to him with singles. Lim loaded the bases with a walk, and Emanuel Trujillo singled on his first pitch to put Nicaragua ahead 2-0. After a coach visit, it took Lim two pitches to get Enmanuel Aburto ground into an inning-ending double play.
Lim led off the second allowing a walk, and left for Wonpyo Hong. The right-hander allowed the second run on an RBI double by Matamoros.
Nicaragua's starter, Stanling Orozco, loaded the bases in the bottom half of the inning. After a coach visit, the right-handed escaped the threat on back-to-back flyouts.
Cristhian Moreno and Darren Britton reached on back-to-back singles to lead off the fourth, and Korea called Jaeyoung Song from the bullpen.
The runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt and Song intentionally loaded the bases with a walk. Edmerson Castro looked at a ball, then delivered an RBI single, extending Nicaragua's lead to 4-1.
Korea struck back in the bottom half of the inning. Hojung Song led off with a double and touched third on a groundout. He scored on Sangwoo Lim's sacrifice fly to centre field.
Orozco left in the top of the fifth with one out after allowing a one-out double to Daeseon Jeong. Francisco Robleto came out of the bullpen and navigated through the end of the at-bat with back-to-back strikeouts.
Nicaragua opened the score to 7-1 in the top of the sixth. Darren Britton led off with a single, stole second and scored on Junior Ortega's RBI single.
Hyunseok Choi took the mound for Korea, and Nicaragua added another run on an RBI single by Godwin Bemmett. Choi got Emanuel Trujillo to ground into a force-out, but pinch hitter Derek Loasiga scored the seventh run from third.
Korea made another pitching change, giving the ball to Baeksan Kim. The right-hander struck out Luis Gonzalez to end the at-bat.
Bryan Torres took care of the final three outs throwing a perfect bottom of the seventh.
Both teams advanced to the Super Round. Nicaragua will start from a 2-0 record, while Korea will have to come back from a 0-2 record.