TAINAN, Taiwan - After having Friday's game postponed due to weather, Team USA opened up play at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-12 Baseball World Cup on Saturday with a bang, downing New Zealand by an eye-popping final score of 43-1.

The team's 43 runs scored easily set a new single-game record for any 12U National Team, breaking the high of 29 set during the World Cup Qualifiers gold-medal game against Venezuela in May.

The U.S. offense started things off right from the opening pitch, scoring three runs in the first inning to take an early lead. After Tyler Early and Leyland Henry reached base via a walk and a single respectively, Bryant Ju came up clutch with two outs, singling up the middle to bring home both. The young designated hitter would add on himself as well, scoring on a wild pitch soon after.

From here, the floodgates opened up in a big way, starting with an 11-run second inning. The frame was bookended by the first home runs of the tournament for any team, with Early smoking a solo shot to the opposite field with no one out and Henry crushing a three-run blast in his second at-bat of the inning.

The red, white, and blue managed to somehow go above and beyond this in the third, continuing its offensive onslaught by putting up 20 more runs on the scoreboard. Ju got things going with a home run of his own to lead the inning off, and two batters later, Gavin Gomez joined the party with a two-run shot of his own. The line kept moving after this, and once Ju came back up to the plate with the bases loaded, he uncorked another long ball, this one a grand slam that brought his RBI total on the day to a team-leading seven.

On the mound, Team USA got a great tandem effort from Bowen Landry and Jett Schoolcraft. Landry started the game and worked the first two innings, striking out four while not allowing any hits. WIth the lead well beyond comfortable after that, Schoolcraft came in for the last two frames, conceding just a lone unearned run and punching out five batters of his own.

How It Happened

• Bryant Ju opened the scoring with a two-out, two-RBI base hit in the first, and followed that up by scoring himself on a wild pitch.
• Bowen Landry worked around a pair of walks in the bottom of the first to keep New Zealand off the board.
• The team then scored 11 in the second, starting with an RBI groundout by Nicholis Parker Jr. and solo home run by Tyler Early.
• After this, two hits, two wild pitches and a balk scored six more, and a three-run home run by Leyland Henry capped the inning off.
• The third inning saw 20 runs come across the plate, starting with a solo shot by Ju and a two-run blast by Gavin Gomez.
• Two more would score on a base hit by Henry and a bases-loaded walk by Paris Head, and immediately after, Ju smoked a grand slam for his second long ball of the inning.
• The remaining runs in the inning would be driven in via eight hits and one more bases-loaded walk. Included in this was an RBI single by Ty Glaus, which brought the record-breaking 30th run across the plate.
• To finish off the game, the team scored nine more in the fourth on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, a sacrifice fly, and four hits.

Of Note

• With the win, Team USA remains unbeaten in opening games at the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup, improving to 6-0 all-time.
• Ju lead the team with seven runs batted in, with Gomez and Henry following him up with five apiece.
• In the hits category, Henry paced everyone with four. Head, Ju, and Gomez each recorded three, and Boston Targac, Jacob Miller, and Micah De Los Reyes all left with two.
• Landry and Schoolcraft combined to record nine of their 12 outs on the mound via the strikeout while also allowing just one hit on the day.

On Deck

Team USA is back in action tomorrow against Panama, with the game set to kick off at 11:00 A.M. local time/11:00 P.M. ET.