Ma Hu, a determined boy who refuses to surrender to destiny, is a key character in the documentary Tough Out. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Documentary pitches the tale of underprivileged youths swinging for a better life thanks to a former baseball star, Wang Kaihao reports.

A group of children from poverty stricken areas from across the country gathered on the outskirts of Beijing. Once, they were confused and challenged by difficulties, unimaginable for many of their contemporaries who were used to a comfortable way of life.

Thanks to a charity program launched by Sun Lingfeng, former captain of China's national men's baseball team at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, these "children in dilemma", as he describes them－many of whom are orphans, the children of prisoners or those left behind by parents who have gone missing－now see a silver lining.

In 2015, Sun began to recruit children aged between 7 and 9 from poor families to a special baseball team. Criteria for selection is not based on their sporting ability, but on their living conditions.

"I know about baseball, it's all I can offer them," Sun says. "Poverty cannot deprive children of the chance to prove themselves. They deserve an equal opportunity with others."

The children will be sponsored to take part in Sun's baseball training camp and study at a nearby school until they turn 18, as Sun promised. He has given the program a poetic name－"angels of baseball power".

In spite of years of continuous devotion, Sun's story is not widely known by the general public, probably due to baseball's relatively low popularity in China compared with other sports.