Taiwan’s national university baseball team bounced back from a disappointing loss at the World University Baseball Championship to rout Sri Lanka 21-0 in five innings in Tokyo yesterday.
The Taiwanese team is scheduled to play Canada for fifth place today in Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu Stadium.
WORST SHOWING
Whether Taiwan win or lose that game, however, this year will be its worst showing at the tournament. Taiwan finished third in 2008, second in 2006 and fourth in 2004 and 2002.
In the quarter-final game against Japan on Wednesday, Taiwan was shut down 13-0 in seven innings.
The defeat dealt a devastating blow to the team, but also served as a great lesson, said team manager Yeh Chih-shien, who has participated in all five tournaments.
“These players are among the best at the college and amateur level in Taiwan,” he said. “We’ve learned from the loss that Taiwan still has a long way to go to compete with the best teams in the world,” he added.
By yesterday, the team had reorganized and it spanked 19 hits against Sri Lanka. Newcomer Huang Yi-kun had three hits, including two home runs, and drove in six runs.
INCONSISTENT OFFENSE
Yeh, who was not happy with Taiwan’s inconsistent offense, said that the key against Canada would once again be the team’s offensive performance.
The semi-finalists in the tournament are Cuba, South Korea, the US and host Japan.
The tournament ends tomorrow.
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