Team Taiwan made it two wins in a row by blanking the Czech Republic 6-0 in the preliminaries at this year’s Intercontinental Cup Baseball Championship in Douliou yesterday afternoon.
The win propelled the home team atop the standings in Group A that includes the defending champs and 10-time winner Cuba, as well South Korea, the Czech Republic and Hong Kong.
Slugger Chen Yong-chi (a minor leaguer with the Pittsburg Pirates) batted a perfect three-for-three with four RBIs to lead the home squad with an attack that teed off against the Czech pitching with 13 hits on the day. Also starring for Taiwan was leadoff man Lin Che-hsuan (a minor leaguer with the Boston Red Sox) who went three-for-five with three runs and a stolen base.
PHOTO: LIAO YAU-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Even though there was still room for improvement as far as Taiwan’s scoring efficiency was concerned, with batters managing to produce only a half-dozen runs on 13 hits, five of which went for extra bases, head coach Yeh Chih-hsien was happy with the outcome of the game.
“Overall, I am pleased with the result of the game, even though we could do better on stringing our hits together a little more,” Yeh said afterwards, referring to dismal batting by his No. 4 and 5 hitters Lin Chih-sheng (La New Bears) and Chen Chun-shiu (a minor leaguer with Cleveland Indians) who batted a combined two-for-eight with no RBIs and hit into double plays to cut short several scoring opportunities for their team.
Other than four quick runs over the first two innings, highlighted by Chen’s two-run double in the second, Taiwan was held to only a pair of runs against a Czech pitching staff that bent, but seldom broke.
Poor run production did not affect Taiwan much in the game as stellar pitching, led by starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen’s (Uni--President Lions) three perfect innings of play, held the Czech hitters to three singles on the day, allowing only one runner to reach scoring position the entire game.
Reliever Liao Wen-yang was credited with the win for his two innings of perfect relief following Pan’s outstanding effort in a game in which Yeh sent five different hurlers to the mound.
“It’s important to give as many pitchers a chance to get some action as possible,” Yeh said after the game.
Team Taiwan take on Hong Kong at the Intercontinental Baseball Stadium this evening with the first pitch scheduled for 6:30pm.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS