The night was cool but the Baseball World Cup got off to a warm and enthusiastic start as Taiwan coasted past Italy 6-1 in the tournament opener last night in Taipei.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) formally opened the tournament with Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) throwing out the first pitch before a capacity crowd of 10,000 at Tienmu Stadium.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) also delivered remarks welcoming the 15 foreign teams to the city.
Pre-game festivities included a colorful and lively display of fireworks and dancing, marching bands and huge Chinese drums. All the teams marched onto the field to complete the ceremony.
Fans welcomed the teams with great enthusiasm, many with their faces painted in the blue and red colors of Taiwan and the grandstands were a sea of flags.
"This is great for Taiwan because it is the World Cup," said Liu Kuo-chang (劉國章), standing among other fans on a packed concourse overlooking third base.
"This gives us international relations. All of these teams are here to take part in this big party."
Taiwan manager Lin Hua-wei put out ace Hsu Ming-chieh (許銘傑) on the mound, taking no chances in what he had described as a "must win" for his team.
Hsu came through on the blustery night, holding Italy scoreless through the first six innings while waiting for the Taiwan offense to get into gear.
Lin said he was pleased with the result. "I'm happy that we got through the first game with a win," he said.
"Thankfully we have a group of players with a lot of professional experience who are used to the pressure of games. After a few innings we were able to start putting it together. I think that we will get better as the tournament goes on."
Hsu said that the long pre-game ceremony left him a bit cold.
"It's been a month since I started," said Hsu, who plays for the Seibu Lions in Japan.
"I was a bit nervous and there was a lot of time between my warm-up and the game. So I had to warm-up again. [Catcher] Hong [I-chung] (洪一中) helped me to start feeling comfortable and I got into my groove."
It also took outfielder Chen Ching-fong (陳金峰) a few innings to find his swing. In his first game with Taiwan since returning from the US last week, the Dodger minor leaguer struck out his first at-bat.
He then walked before finishing by driving in a pair of runs with a triple and a single.
Taiwan got on the board in the second inning. Hsu Sheng-chieh (
Italy prevented a shutout with a run in the seventh inning. Andrea Castri drove in the run on a sacrifice fly, which was caught on a spectacular diving catch by Huang Kan-lin (黃甘霖).
Italy manager Jim Davenport gave his team a mixed report card on the game.
"I think that our pitchers threw better than the score indicated, but we did not hit well or play well in the field," he said.
The official world championship of the InternationalBaseball Federation swings into full gear today with seven games held across the island in Taipei, Shinchuan, Chiayi City, and Kaohsiung County.
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