Argentina won their second straight junior men’s world softball title Sunday night, but not before making things interesting.

Following a dominant round robin tournament where they went 9-0 and allowed just three runs against, Argentina opened the playoffs by dropping a 3-1 decision to New Zealand.

The loss forced them to play an extra game versus Japan Sunday morning, which went two extra innings before Gonzalo Masmu’s walkoff home run ended it in the bottom of the ninth.

Argentina had less than one hour to prepare for the final, but it wouldn’t matter.

The club scored two runs in the first inning off Black Sox starter Ethan Johnston, and that would be all they needed.

Argentine pitcher Roman Godoy threw a complete game shutout, allowing three hits and striking out six in six innings of work.

Following his final punchout in the bottom of the sixth, Godoy let out a roar as catcher Teo Migliavacca leaped into his arms.

“It’s the best thing that can happen in life,” the 19-year-old Godoy said via a translator post-victory. “For the second one, you work harder, because you know how hard it is to win a tournament.

“This proves to everybody that we not only can be champions in Argentina, but we can win tournaments outside,” he added.

On Saturday, Black Sox starting pitcher Johnston fanned 11 through seven, allowing just one run on three hits.

On Sunday, Argentina did not let him find his groove.

“Since we got that loss ... we just make a contract to everybody,” said head coach Julio Garmaci. “We said ‘Hey, the last day is tomorrow. This team is not going to play anymore together. Let’s enjoy the game, and play one pitch at a time. Thank God and your families and everybody around you that you are here, doing the thing that you love to do ... Just give your best no matter what.’ And things happened.”

Garmaci said this team was even better than the one that defeated Japan on their home soil to claim the first junior men’s world softball championship for a South American team in 2012.

“This team was more balanced,” he said. “It’s not all about pitching. It’s about having an all-around team, and that’s what we tried to do.”

Garmaci said he had no issues with Godoy pitching in both contests Sunday, where he picked up both wins.

“He is a super-athlete,” Garmaci said. “He gave everything he got. Now he knows that with sacrifice, he can achieve anything in life.”

While the Argentine players celebrated by spraying water on each other, singing and chanting, the Black Sox quietly revelled in their own accomplishments.

New Zealand hadn’t played for a junior men’s world championship since 1997, when they also won silver.

In 2012, they finished sixth.

New Zealand coach Thomas Makea said despite the loss in the final, the club achieved his goal – to be better than the 2012 team.

“These young men here have blown them out of the water,” he said of the comparison between the two Black Sox clubs. “We just picked 17 guys that wanted to work hard for each other and play ball. We picked the right guys, but we were just a couple of runs short.”

Argentina’s two-run first inning spelled trouble for New Zealand.

In the top of the third, New Zealand pulled Johnston for Blake Radford, but he went on to allow three more runs in the sixth, before Johnston re-entered the game.

The pitcher with the dreadlocks couldn’t rediscover his winning form, however, eventually giving up a three-run homer to Facundo Carril that spelled curtains for the Kiwis.

“We thought the guys were ready, but I guess Argentina wanted it more than us today,” Makea said. “We struggled to hit the ball, and they didn’t. That’s softball. That’s sport.”

Regardless, his men proved to be outstanding ambassadors for the sport, the coach said.

After solving Mata a day earlier, the Kiwis were unable to do the same with Godoy, said 18-year-old first baseman Eruera Drage from Auckland.

“I’m definitely proud of my teammates and my brothers that we were able to beat this team once,” he said.