Taiwan, officially eliminated from medal contention, finally managed to pull out a close game last night against Canada, winning 6-5 in extra innings.
Taiwan benefited from this year’s newly adopted extra-innings rule, which starts in the 11th inning or later with runners on first and second. Second baseman Chiang Chih-hsien’s single scoring first baseman Peng Cheng-ming in the top of the 12th provided the game’s winning run.
Both of the game’s starters — Canada’s Mike Johnson and Taiwan’s Chen Wei-yin — had early exits.
PHOTO: AFP
Left-handed reliever Ni Fu-te pitched brilliantly for Taiwan, picking up the win with five scoreless innings. He struck out six and walked one.
The two squads battled to a 5-5 tie through the first 11 innings.
Taiwan scored first, with outfielder Lo Kuo-hui driving in outfielder Chang Chien-ming on a sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. However, the lefty Chen Wei-yin got into early trouble in the bottom of the first, giving up two runs on a string of base hits.
Taiwan used a big top of the second inning to jump out to a 5-2 lead. Shortstop Lin Che-shen hit a solo home run to deep left — his second in the last two games — followed by catcher Yeh Chun-chang’s RBI single, and then a towering two-run blast down the left field line from centerfielder Lin Che-hsuan, who went three for five with two RBIs.
Canada came back to tie the game, scoring a run on Chiang Chih-hsien’s throwing error in the bottom half of the second, adding another run on a fielder’s choice, scoring centerfielder Adam Stern in the bottom of the fourth, and then tying the game on Stubby Clapp’s solo shot in the bottom of the 7th inning off reliever Pan Hui-Lung.
In the decisive top of the 12th inning, Chiang’s single off Chris Reitsma put Chinese Taipei up for good.
Ni recorded the team’s first two outs in the bottom half of the 12th, striking out Emerson Frostad — who missed a game winning home run that went just foul — and got Adam Stern looking on a pitch that looked a bit outside.
Taiwan manager Hong Yi-chen then replaced Ni with reliever Chiang Chih-chia, who picked up the save by striking out catcher Chris Robinson to record the game’s final out.
In other games yesterday Cuba signalled they are not about to surrender their Olympic crown without a fight after pulverizing China 17-1 in seven innings.
South Korea also underlined their gold medal aspirations by pummeling the Netherlands 10-0 in eight innings to finish with the only unbeaten record (7-0), one game ahead of Cuba.
Cuban batters pounded Chinese pitchers for 20 hits, highlighted by Giorbis Duvergel cracking the Beijing Games’ first grand slam to key a nine-run second inning.
Michel Enriquez and Ariel Pestano contributed two-run homers as the triple Olympic champions improved their record to 6-1.
“For our next game we are not going to change anything,” said Cuba’s manager, Antonio Pacheco. “Our strategy worked fine today so there is nothing for us to change.”
“We are always confident and today’s win helped with that,” he said.
The Koreans continue to be the surprise package of the Olympic tournament, having toppled gold medal favorites Cuba, Japan and the US.
In yesterday’s late game the US beat Japan 4-2 (11 innings).
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