Taiwan slaughtered China 13-1 yesterday at the 25th Asian Baseball Championship in Sapporo, Japan, exorcising the ghosts of its humiliating defeats to China at the Beijing Olympic Games last year and the World Baseball Classic in March.
The Taiwanese team unleashed its fury against the Chinese team with a total of three homeruns and 14 hits.
Taiwan opened the scoring with two points in the first inning, thanks to a wild pitch by Chinese starter Lu Jiangang and a second-base hit by Taiwan’s Lin Hung-yu (林泓育).
They scored another point in the second inning thanks to several defensive mistakes by Chinese players.
In the third inning, Taiwan began a powerful offensive, scoring six points by the end of that inning.
By the fourth inning, Taiwan had a seemingly unassailable 9-0 lead over China, made even stronger when Liu Chien-chung scored with a hit in the fifth.
By the sixth inning, the Taiwanese had secured a decisive 11-1 lead before finishing in the seventh inning 13-1 after Wu Tsung-chun (吳宗峻) hit a two-point homerun.
The Taiwanese team had been striving to even the score after unexpected losses in recent years to Chinese teams, which are regarded as having much less experience than the Taiwanese.
Taiwan beat South Korea 5-4 on Saturday in the championships that opened that day in Hokkaido, capital of Sapporo Prefecture.
It was defeated 6-5 by defending champion Japan the following day.
Four teams — South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China — are in the semi-final round of the regional baseball championships, which are held every two years.
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