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Downpour washes out Taiwan's picnic

Team Taiwan's rally in Wednesday night's showdown against the US fell one run short as a downpour during the bottom of the sixth forced the game official to end the contest after just five completed innings of play. The 2-1 loss gave Team Taiwan a 3-2 record for a third-place finish in Group A's preliminary round action at the 2004 XXI AAA World Junior Baseball Championship in Taipei.

A costly error on a relay throw to third by Taiwanese right fielder Chu Yuan-ching, after American pitcher Ike Davis had singled to bring home the runner on third, would score the runner all the way from first in the opening inning to give Team USA an early 2-0 lead. The two-run play in the top of the first turned out to make the difference in the game.

Starter Lin Po-yo did not live up to his ace-of-the-staff status as he struggled early, yielding three singles on a wet field to an American squad that took advantage of his slow start. Even though he managed to regain his composure and limited the damage to just two runs in the first, the 2-0 deficit proved to be too much for his fellow hitters to overcome.

Retiring the first eight batters he faced was Davis, whose phenomenal location and change of speed kept the Taiwanese hitters off-balance throughout the match. The southpaw out of Scotsdale, Arizona made the most out of his second visit to Taiwan in pocketing the victory. His first visit to Taiwan was a year ago when Davis represented the US in winning the Gold Medal at the XI AA World Youth Baseball Championship 2003 in Kaohsiung.

"I went into the game wanting to throw strikes and let them get themselves out," Davis reflected after the game. "I love this type of situation. The bigger the game, the more exciting it is for me," he said.

Offensively for Team Taiwan, the hitters finally came around in the fifth against Davis when designated hitter Tsai Jing-hao connected for a single to short and scored on third baseman Tseng Yu-jeh's liner up the middle to reduce the American lead to 2-1.

Tseng's run-scoring hit came after a two-out, passed ball on a third-strike call that allowed the batter to reach and the inning to continue.

With the momentum definitely beginning to swing its way, Team Taiwan then started off the sixth with a long, leadoff double by left fielder Shen Yueh-tseh (沈岳澤) before the uninvited downpour forced the game to be cut short.

"The two least desirable things that I was afraid to see both happened; I didn't want to see us trailing early, and I definitely didn't want the game to be cut short by the poor weather," coach Lee Du-hung (李杜宏) lamented after the game, showing obvious discontent as his troops failed to make good on the swinging of momentum in his favor.

"I certainly feel for them [Team Taiwan]; I wouldn't have liked to lose that way (game called because of rain)," Team USA coach Marc Johnson said. "But we all knew the rules coming into this tournament. We can't control the rain. We feel humbled and grateful to get the win."

Next up for Team Taiwan will be the squad from South Korea that earned the second-seed berth with a 4-1 mark in Group B's preliminary round of play.

The double-elimination, final round will kick off this afternoon with Team USA taking on a tough Italian team and the undefeated Japanese all-stars facing off against the Panamanian nationals in Hsinchuang and Tienmu, respectively.

Tonight's matches will include a close Taiwan-South Korea battle in Hsinchuang at 6:30pm and a visit to Tienmu by the heavily-favored Cuban squad against a Dutch team that just managed to qualify for the final round with a 2-3 record in the preliminary round.
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