Taiwan overcame a two-run deficit in the seventh, forced the game into extra innings, and ousted Cuba 10-6 in the second round of play in the World Baseball Challenge at the Citizen Field Park in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, late on Friday night to advance to today’s title game.
The win not only avenged a tough loss to Cuba in the preliminary round for the Islanders, but more importantly it earned them a day off yesterday as the other squads were left to play out the rest of the double-elimination second round to determine who would face Taiwan in today’s title match.
Starter Chen Yu-hsun ran into trouble early and allowed three quick runs in the opening frame off a pair of singles and a two-out two-run double to fall behind 3-0.
However, Taiwan’s bats would bail out Chen for his early mistakes as they scored the next four runs, three off Cuban starter Miguel Gonzalez and another off reliever Alberto Soto to take a surprising 4-3 lead after four innings of play, highlighted by a solo blast in the second inning by Huang Yi-kun and an RBI single from Yu Tsung-han in the third.
Taiwan’s lead would last less than an inning as Chen failed to keep the opposing hitters at bay in the fifth, despite holding the Cubans to only a lone hit from second through the fourth, by walking a pair to set up Alfredo Despaigne’s three-run home run that set Taiwan back by two runs.
Trailing by two, Taiwan’s offense would strike again against Cuba with Lin Wei-ting delivering a clutch two-out single with the bases loaded to tie the game at 6-6 in the top of the seventh, a score that remained through the ninth, before a four-run 10th blew the game wide open in the eventual 10-6 rout.
Right-hander Lin Chen-hua ably recorded the final three outs to earn the well-deserved victory, pitching shutout ball on no hits over 2-2/3 innings of impeccable relief to beat his counterpart Jonder Martinez in convincing fashion.
Team Canada and Japan’s Toshiba Baseball each won their second-round contest against the Bahamas and China’s Beijing Tigers respectively, and were to battle early yesterday with the winner to later play Cuba to earn the right to play Taiwan in today’s title game.
Skipper Chen Wei-cheng will have most of his pitchers available as Taiwan look to bring home their first gold in the competition’s history.
Taiwan suffered its first defeat of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12, losing to defending champion Japan 3-1 at the Taipei Dome last night. Japan’s victory put Taiwan’s score at two wins and one loss in WBSC Premier12 championship Group B play. In the top of the first inning, a sacrifice fly from Japanese batter Shota Morishita allowed Masayuki Kuwahara to score a run on Taiwan’s starter Chen Po-ching (陳柏清). Taiwan’s attempt to catch up in the bottom of the first ended to no avail and an uneventful second inning saw the score
Taiwan last night defeated Cuba 2-0 in their World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 Group B game at the Taipei Dome and finished the group second. At the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium, South Korea yesterday defeated Australia 5-2, while Japan last night won 11-3 against the Dominican Republic. On Sunday, Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome to advance to the Super Round. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champions and Group B winners Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the
Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome last night to advance to the Super Round of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 tournament. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champion and Group B winner Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the off. After taking a walk to first base, Taiwan’s Chen Chieh- hsien (陳傑憲) then stole second before Tseng Song-en (曾頌恩) drew a walk to first in the top of the first inning. Chen then
BIG EVENT: US president-elect Donald Trump and a slew of potential administration members including Elon Musk and Robert Kennedy Jr were among the audience Jon Jones had just knocked the breath out of the heavyweight challenger he pummeled into retirement when UFC’s greatest fighter broke out a herky-jerky dance inside the cage and dedicated the groove to US president-elect Donald Trump. As a defeated Stipe Miocic gamely tried to recover on all fours, Jones posed and played to the packed crowd on top of the cage and even had a gift for his favorite fan in the front row — Trump for a few moments clutched the UFC heavyweight title. Jones and Trump shook hands and capped a fight night charged with politics as
RSS