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Taiwan finish warmups with solid victory

Team Taiwan closed out the warmups for the IBAF Final Olympic Qualification Tournament against the Sinon Bulls in Taichung on Monday night with an impressive 10-0 shutout win.

Yang Jien-fu (Sinon Bulls), a likely starter in Friday's showdown with Spain, held nothing back against his longtime teammates by tossing three shutout innings on a pair of singles and three strikeouts. His bullpen finished the job with six combined innings of three-hit ball to keep the shutout intact.

"Given the fact that we were playing without four of our starters, I am quite happy with our performance tonight," Sinon manager Hu Chang-hao said afterwards, referring to the absence of Yang, catcher Yeh Jung-chang, third baseman Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan and centerfielder Chang Jien-ming, all of whom wore Taiwan uniforms on the night.

Hu must have been in a very positive frame of mind, because Taiwan battered hired gun Jose Espinal's pitching for five runs (only two earned) on six hits and a pair of walks over three-and-a-third innings. Setup man Du Yen-jeh, meanwhile, surrendered four runs in the eighth on back-to-back, two-run doubles.

Lin Yi-chuan's one-run single after Chang's RBI groundout put Taiwan 2-0 ahead at the top of the first, before two singles and a double, together with a costly error by the Sinon outfield, made it 5-0 in the fourth.

Taiwan scored again in the sixth on a one-run triple by Tsang Chih-yao to make it 6-0, before a four-run eighth concluded the scoring.

The 13-hit burst by Taiwan's batters made a welcome change for head coach Hong Yi-chung (La New Bears), especially in light of premier slugger Chen Chin-fong's (Bears) withdrawal as a result of injury.

Also starring for Taiwan was Chang Chih-jia, who entered the game in the fourth and calmly threw two innings of hitless relief.
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