Japan's 2-0 victory over South Korea in the final game of the 2003 Asian Baseball Championship gave the host country the unshared title in this year's competition and Taiwan the second-place finish that it desperately sought for the right to represent Asia in the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
A loss by the Japanese would have sent South Korea in place of Taiwan because Taiwan, with the same 2-1 record as South Korea, would have lost the tiebreaker, having yielded more runs than South Korea.
PHOTO: AP/KYODO NEWS
To get the second win in this year's four-team, three-game round-robin tournament, in Sapporo Japan, Taiwan barely slipped by China with a 3-1 victory earlier in the day, thanks to slugger Chen Chin-feng's (
Chen's hot bat continued to make opposing pitchers shiver as Chen went 3-for-4 for the second game in a row to help Taiwan bounce back from Thursday night's embarrassing 9-0 defeat by Japan.
Chen was one single shy of batting for the cycle as he ripped an offering from Chinese starter Wang Nan (
The 26-year-old Tainan native accounted for all of Taiwan's three runs as he knocked home two and scored the third from third base on Wang Nan's wild pitch in the bottom of the fourth. From the mound, Taiwan's starter Chang Chih-chia (
Chang took a shutout into the ninth before allowing a run on Chinese centerfielder Chang Hung-po's (
The game began with Taiwan taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on designated hitter Chen Chin-feng's solo shot to dead center, before the score read 2-0 in the fourth on a wild pitch that scored Chen again from third.
Taiwan put runners in scoring positions in the next three innings, but failed to cash in.
Outside the heavyweights in the order, who produced six of Taiwan's eight runs, the rest of the lineup was a meagerly 2-for-24 against Chinese pitching that yielded six runs to Japan and 13 to South Korea.
With China managing to stay within striking distance, Chen Chin-feng made sure his team would not be denied the victory by driving a pitch down the right-field line for a triple that scored fellow teammate Chang Tai-shan (張泰山) all the way from first for Taiwan's third and deciding run.
Despite the win, Taiwan's manager Hsu Sheng-ming (徐生明) expressed concern regarding his team's inability to put the game away earlier against a much weaker Chinese side. Hsu said he "would critically review the lack of offense overall as soon as the team returns home from Japan," according to Chinese-language media.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from