Poor pitching, coupled with a lack of timely hitting led to an ugly 13-3 defeat at the hands of Team Italy, as Taiwan dropped the opening game of the 2006 XVI Intercontinental Cup Baseball Championship in Taichung on Thursday night.
The hosts committed the cardinal sin of underestimating their opponents, spotting the Italians a seven-run cushion after only three innings of play and never recovered.
"I never thought we would lose by as much as we did," a shocked Taiwanese skipper Yeh Chih-shien said after enduring the worst defeat to Italy by Team Taiwan in tournament history.
A wild Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen (President Lions) whose fastball only topped out at 138kph compared to his normal 148kph, allowed a run in the opening inning to the Italians on an RBI single by designated hitter Max De Biase and found himself in a world of trouble in the top of the third, giving up three runs on as many hits before being relieved by fellow right-hander Lin Keh-chien.
Lin, who was tagged for four runs while recording no outs in the third, not only could not stop the bleeding, but added fuel to the fire, as Team Italy capitalized on a total breakdown by the Taiwanese pitching to erupt for six unanswered runs in the inning and claim a shocking 7-0 advantage.
Taiwan's second reliever Lee Cheng-chang finally stopped Italy from doing as it pleased with four scoreless innings of relief. But it was too little too late as the Italians ultimately solved him in the eighth with three doubles that knocked Lee out of the game before ringing up four more runs off lefty Yang Yao-hsuin in the ninth to end the slaughter.
Offensively for Taiwan, a 0-for-13 effort by the heart of the order, consisting of Hsieh "the Ugly" Jia-shien (Macoto Cobras), Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan (Sinon Bulls) and top amateur slugger Lin Yi-chuan, led to unusually inefficient run production, managing only three runs on the eleven hits collected in the game.
Any three of the dozen runners that Taiwan stranded over the first seven innings could have made it a brand new ball game because Italy did not pull away until the final two innings.
The loss set Taiwan back as it tries to reshuffle a starting rotation that has lost confidence while trying to forget about this ugly loss in the face of the stiff competition to come.
With tough contests against Japan, Australia and South Korea over the weekend, Yeh must find a way to rally his troops in a hurry before the 10-day tournament turns into an embarrassment for the hosts.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but