Team Taiwan continues winning ways

Fans at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium cheer for Taiwan during yesterday's game between Team Taiwan and Germany. PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES

Team Taiwan continued its winning way in Game 3 of the IBAF Final Olympic Qualification Tournament by blanking Germany 2-0 at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon to remain unbeaten with a perfect 3-0 record.

What should have been an easy win over their European counterparts turned into a low-scoring affair for the home side as they managed to plate only a pair of runs on offense, in contrast to the 9.5 runs per contest average from their two previous victories over Spain and Mexico.

"The much slower velocity by their pitchers actually made it hard for us to adjust because we haven't seen anything like it," Taiwan head coach Hong Yi-chung said after the game, referring to his hitters' inability to score any runs over the first six innings.

But with the crowd growing increasingly impatient and Germany wondering about pulling off a potential upset, Luo Guo-hui ended the suspense by lining a shot deep-left which bounced over the left-center wall for a ground-rule double with runner on second to score Taiwan's first run before Kao Chih-kang followed with an RBI single that scored Luo in the top of the seventh to make it 2-0.

Germany made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth by belting a clean double and a single off Huang Jung-chung and Luo Jia-ren respectively to place runners at the corners with no outs.

That was as close to scoring as the Germans would get as Luo calmly retired the next three hitters in order on two infield pop-flies and a strikeout to keep the shutout win intact.

Neither offense was able to solve the opposing starter with Taiwan's Chang Chih-jia tossing five innings of shutout ball on as many hits and German lefty Andrew Hughes enjoying a five-hitter of his own through the sixth.

That changed in a hurry as the Taiwanese hitters finally caught on with Hughes and broke loose on back-to-back doubles and a single to score the lone runs in the game during the decisive seventh.

Picking up the big win for Taiwan was right-hander Lin Ke-chien who entered in the sixth in relief of Chang with two hitless innings of play while Luo Jia-ren was credited with the save for pitching his team out of a jam in the ninth.

Suffering the loss on behalf of Germany was Hughes whose luck finally ran out against a potent Taiwan lineup.

Offensively for Taiwan, eight of the starting nine managed at least one hit in the game with leadoff man Chang Jien-ming collecting two for his third straight multi-hit performance.

As for Team Germany, Jendrick Speer and Dominik Wulf were able to muster a couple of base hits each off the Taiwanese pitching.

Team Taiwan face Canada this evening in Taichung.

Australia 10, canada 5

Australia defeated Canada 10-5 yesterday afternoon in Yunlin, bouncing back from a 16-2 loss to South Korea the previous night to climb back into contention.

Left-handed starter Steve Kent earned the victory for the Aussies, giving up three runs on six hits and striking out six with only one walk.

SS Daniel Berg had three hits and 3 RBI, with 1B Glenn Williams adding three hits of his own.

Canada's pitching had a rough day, with starters Brooks McNiven and reliever James Richmond giving up a combined 6 runs in 7 innings.

Ryan Radmanovic, James Van Ostrand, and Matthew Rogelstad each homered in the losing cause for the Canadians.

In other results yesterday it was: South Korea 6, Mexico 1

Spain 2, South Africa 1.