Chiayi County’s National Tung-shih Senior High School earned a convincing 5-1 win over Pingtung County’s Mei Ho Senior High School at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Wednesday to advance into the semi-final round in the High School Baseball Taiwan Championship.
Staff ace Tsai Chih-yu went the distance in a two-hit gem with a solid fastball clocked just over 140kph and a wicked slider that broke hard and late to confuse the Mei Ho hitters all game long. Other than a two-out double following a walk that drove in higher-seeded Mei Ho’s lone run of the game in the top of the third, Tsai was virtually untouchable.
National Tung-shih surprised Mei Ho by leading off the bottom of the first with three straight hits, highlighted by Chang Hsuen-yu’s two-run single before Wu Wei-chi’s sacrifice-fly knocked in the third run of the game to give Tung-shih a quick 3-0 lead against Mei Ho starter Hsu Cheng-chi.
Hsu left the game in the bottom of the third for giving up a walk and a single to place a pair of runners on with one out after his offense managed to score a run in the top of the inning to cut National Tung-shih’s lead to 3-1.
National Tung-shih took a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the third that was more than ample for Tsai as he retired all but three of the next 21 hitters he faced to pick up the win.
As for Mei Ho, the three early runs allowed by Hsu proved to be fatal as it trailed the entire way en route to an elimination loss.
Also on Wednesday, Kao Yuan Senior High School beat Qiang Shu High School 7-2.
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