Failure to come up with the timely hits, coupled with the pitchers allowing a pair of homers, cost Taiwan the game against South Korea as the hosts dropped the opener 5-2 at the Asian Baseball Championship in Taichung yesterday afternoon.
Taiwan actually outhit South Korea by eight-to-five in a game where they led for over four innings. But when it counted the most, the men in the familiar white uniforms fell a few clutch hits short of giving the sellout crowd a reason to cheer.
Hu Chin-long led off the bottom of the first with an opposite-field single off South Korean starter Ryu Hyun-jin and scored the game's first run two outs later on Chen Chin-fong's RBI single to give Taiwan a quick 1-0 lead.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
The one-run advantage seemed ample through the first four innings with starter Lin En-yu on the mound. The right-hander dominated South Korea and allowed a lone double through the fourth to keep the visitors off the board.
Then came the decisive fifth in which South Korea finally figured out Lin by connecting for two singles to place runners on first and second before Lee Jong-wook crushed a two-out offering from Lin over the right field wall to put his team ahead 3-1 at the top of the fifth.
Even though Taiwan got a run back in the bottom of the sixth on Chang Tai-shan's run-scoring double that scored Chang Jien-ming all the way from first, that was as close as they got. South Korea scored the game's last two runs by going deep against Taiwanese reliever Huang Jung-chung, with a solo homer by Park Jin Man in the seventh and a fielding error by Chang Tai-shan that allowed another run in the eighth to make it 5-2.
Taiwan had their share of opportunities to rally against South Korea with runners reaching base on three combined singles and a walk in the seventh and eighth.
However, they failed to produce the timely hits necessary to bring the runners home and had a poor none-for-seven when hitting with runners on base. That ultimately cost Taiwan the game as they stranded four during the seventh and eighth.
Picking up the big win for South Korea was Ryu, who shook off the early-game jitters by holding Taiwan to two runs on four hits over five-plus innings of play to put his team in contention for the title and a place at the Olympics next year.
Suffering the loss was Lin, whose mistakes were capitalized on by the South Koreans in their game-winning three-run home run.
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