Taiwan's baseball team followed up its white-knuckle win against China on Monday with a blowout of the Philippines yesterday at the Asian Games.
The Philippines team finally said uncle in the fifth inning when Taiwan widened its lead to 16 runs, invoking the mercy rule.
Taiwan opened with a seven-run first inning against Philippines starter Charlie Labrador, who lasted only two-and-a-third innings surrendering eight runs on nine hits. His relievers didn't do any better, allowing another seven runs in under two innings.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
All but one of the 12 Taiwan batters who came to the plate got at least one hit, and only one strikeout was recorded against them.
Meanwhile, Taiwan starting pitcher Lin Ko-chien cruised through four scoreless innings to take the win, while reliever Lee Chen-chang cleaned up with a perfect top of the fifth.
The win keeps Taiwan undefeated in the tournament.
Taiwan's women's basketball team won its first preliminary match of the games against South Korea 80 to 73 yesterday to advance to the next round. Taiwan commanded every quarter except the third, with Liu Chun-yi packing the main punch with 24 points, followed by Chiang Feng-chun with 22.
There was disappointment as Taiwan's heavily favored mixed doubles table tennis duo Chuang Chih-yuan and Huang Yi-hua fell to their South Korean opponents in three straight sets in their quarter-final match.
The women's tennis team fared better, defeating Kuwait 3-0 in a quarter-final as Hsieh Su-wei, Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung all got the better of their opponents.
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