Taiwan's baseball team was scheduled to play with Canada yesterday in its Athens Olympics debut, a crucial match if the team is to qualify for the final four.
"We will revenge the softball team," said baseball team head coach Hsu Sheng-ming (徐生明) after finishing a familiarization session on Saturday.
PHOTO: LIN FENG-CHENG, TAIPEI TIMES
Hsu decided to make Chang Chih-chia (
PHOTO: LIN FENG-CHENG, TAIPEI TIMES
Tsao Chin-hui (
An agreement between Taiwan's baseball association and the Color-ado Rockies, limits Tsao to throwing 60 pitches at most in order to protect his right shoulder, which was recently injured.
"I hope that Chang Tai-shan (
Chang was reportedly upset because Next magazine ran a story last week accusing him of having an affair with an ex-girlfriend. Chang has denied the allegation.
Taiwan's women's softball team lost its first two games, losing any hope of a medal.
The team had vowed to win its debut against Canada on Saturday but its poor batting ability led to its defeat as the Canadians won 2-1.
Starting pitcher Wu Chia-yen (
The team then lost to Japan 6-0 yesterday. The Japanese made a total of 13 hits while the Taiwanese made just two.
Given that the team's game against team USA is almost a forgone conclusion, the Taiwanese women will have to win their games against China, Greece, Australia and Italy in order to enter the final four round.
"We are on the edge of a steep cliff [following the two losses]," said head coach Ni Chao-liang (
Ni said he planned to start either Wu Chia-yen (
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