Taiwan's Chang Chun-Po, right, slides into second base against Mexico during the second inning of a baseball game at the Little League World Series, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, in South Williamsport, Pa. (AP Photo/Caleb Craig)

A loss to open up a tournament? Chihuahua, Mexico’s Little Leaguers have been there before. But while some teams may panic losing the first game of a tournament, Mexico simply bunkers down and rallies.

Mexico lost its opener to Tijuana at the Mexican Regional tournament, 3-1. But after that? It was five straight wins to claim the regional championship.

So don’t think Mexico’s players are stressed about opening the Little League World Series in South Williamsport with a 3-0 loss to Chinese Taipei.

It’s familiar territory for Mexico.

“We’re coming from a talented region, so we’re accustomed to that situation,” Mexico manager Esteban Gallardo said on Thursday.

Mexico ran into a pitching buzzsaw in Lin Chin-Tse, the Chinese Taipei standout who threw four innings and struck out five without yielding a hit against Mexico.

“It was a great game with Chinese pitcher throwing a good game, but th Mexico team played a good game,” Gallardo said. “We made good swings, but we were not able to get a hit at the right time. We did a good job.”

It was tough for Mexico, but the team’s focused on the next task at hand and that’s facing Puerto Rico in an elimination game on Saturday at Volunteer Stadium.

“Just to work with our game and have faith,” Gallardo said. “We’re happy.”

The mindset for Mexico is to shae off the loss and refocus. It’s one game at a time and you can’t look ahead at the Series, especially when any game could be your last.

“We prepared mentally so that we are really past that situation (of dwelling on a loss). I would say we will not face another pitcher like we faced today,” Gallardo said about Chinese Taipei. “We have trained and we would move on more confidently.”

When asked what he feels his team’s strength is, Gallardo didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Our fans and our confidence in ourselves,” Gallardo said. “We really did well at regionals.”

Mexico showed the talent it had in its loss. While the team only accumulated three singles, it was Gregorio Madrid who went 2 for 2 and reached base three times thanks to being walked.

“He’s my captain and he’s my leader,” Gallardo said. “I have to push the team at times. The Chinese team is very well trained, but we want to have respect of a good team.”

Mexico went down fighting on Thursday. In the bottom of the sixth ininng, Mexico was able to get two runners to reach base with two outs. The rally came up shy, but it showed that the team will fight until the final out is recorded.

And support wise, Gallardo is glad to see the fans in Mexico cheering them on.

“We want to say we appreciate the message that we received from the media from Mexico who are happy with what we’re doing,” Gallardo said. “We have to continue working and what we say to the ids is we’re going ona long (journey).”