China lost to Nicaragua 3-1 in the bronze medal game at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Under-23 (U23) Baseball World Cup in Shaoxing, east China's Zhejiang Province, on Sunday morning.

Despite the defeat, the hosts still finished with their best-ever performance at the tournament.

Nicaragua scored two runs in the first inning and added another in the third. Zhu Xudong contributed the only run for China after sprinting across home plate following Zhou Yi's hit to leftfield in the third inning.

Japan beat Puerto Rico 5-0 in the championship game to lift the trophy for the second time in a row.

China were participating in the U23 World Cup for the first time and had never reached the top-six in any corresponding competition at any age level. A total of 12 teams were divided into two groups, with each side playing five round-robin games lasting seven innings apiece.

The top three teams from each group advanced to the Super Round, in which they don't play any opponents from the previous stage, but their group records carried over. The top two teams from the Super Round proceeded to the gold medal game while the sides that finished third and fourth met in the bronze medal contest.

China finished the group stage with three wins and two losses, but fell to South Korea 7-2 in their first Super Round game. The hosts then defeated Venezuela 6-5 on Friday and beat Nicaragua 4-0 on Saturday.

Saturday's win marked China's first shutout at this year's U23 World Cup, with starting pitcher Zhao Wei going the distance on the mound.