The Team USA 12U baseball team played against New Zealand over the weekend was as if they turned on Create a Player, cranked all the attributes up to 99, and then repeated it until they had a full lineup of perfect players. Start game. Score runs. Don’t stop.
Team USA won 43-1 on Saturday (Friday in United States time — the game took place in Taiwan, which is 12 hours ahead of the east coast), absolutely smashing the previous 12U record of 29 runs, which was set in the World Cup Qualifiers gold-medal game against Venezuela in May.
The team started its World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) game “slow” in the first inning with “only” three runs before bursting out for 11 in the second inning. There were two home runs in the inning, which were the first home runs hit of the tournament, according to usabaseball.com.
The third inning got no better for New Zealand — Team USA put up 20 runs, five of which came off two home runs by Bryant Ju, the second of which was a grand slam.
BRYANT JU ARE YOU SERIOUS? 🤯
Mamba’s second home run of the day is a grand slam!
T3 | 🇺🇸 23, 🇳🇿 0 pic.twitter.com/W14xpVJGYy
— USA Baseball 12U (@USABaseball12U) July 29, 2023
After nine more runs in the top of the fourth inning, New Zealand scored their sole run of the game in the bottom half. The game was ended by mercy rule after this.
Ju led the team with seven RBIs while Gavin Gomez and Leyland Henry had five apiece, according to usabaseball.
